A Road Less Traveled to Functional Polymers: Epoxide Termination in Living Carbanionic Polymer Synthesis

Functional polymers possess tremendous potential both in academia and in industry. In particular, oxiranes offer manifold possibilities for the introduction of single hydroxyl or multiple orthogonal functionalities in carbanionic polymerization. Here, we present a brief overview of the fascinating possibilities arising from the employment of common as well as individually designed epoxide derivatives for the synthesis of end-functional polymers. Continuous flow techniques can be utilized for the rapid generation and screening of precisely defined hydroxyl-modified polymers. The utilization of functionalized polymers as precursors for the formation of complex macromolecular architectures (e.g., miktoarm star polymers) is summarized and potential applications as well as future perspectives are discussed.