Functional polymers are based on certain chemical functional groups. As such, the inspiration from organic chemistry has always been fruitful to the development of new synthetic routes to functional polymers. Further, the thrive for structure-property relationships in polymer materials requires a precise control of polymer structures. As such, different aspects will be discussed:

Post-polymerization modifications (PPMs) have been a valuable synthetic route for the preparation of functional polymers since the early beginnings of polymer science. Over the decades, new and highly efficient routes have been described, taking advantage of reactive monomers. In conjunction with the advent of reversible-deactivation radical polymerizations (RDRPs), PPMs have proven to be extremely powerful in the synthesis of libraries of functional polymers to study structure-property relationships. Examples that showcase the introduction of highly functional groups as well as the complete removal of functional groups will be discussed. Particular focus will be laid on functional polymers in the context of electrical energy storage:

Poly(ethylene oxide) PEO is a readily investigated polymer in numerous applications. One of them being its utilization as an electrolyte for solid-state batteries. However, not much is known on structural variants of PEO about the utilization as polymer electrolytes. Herein, we present the synthesis of some novel PEO-based polymer architectures and their utilization as polymer electrolytes.

Sulfur and particular functional groups derived from sulfur have been major players in this area of exciting research and further have been utilized for the design and preparation of polymeric materials that lead to a plethora of applications. A strategy to convert sulfur into polymeric materials is the inverse vulcanization reaction of sulfur with alkenes. However, the materials formed are of limited applicability, because they need to be cured at high temperatures (>130 °C) for many hours. Herein, Prof. Patrick Théato will discuss the reaction of elemental sulfur with vinyl alkoxysilanes to enable a control of materials properties. Also, post-polymerization modifications of such inverse vulcanized polymers will be discussed.