Sugar-Based Alternating Copolymers via Photoinduced Radical Copolymerization of Levoglucosenone and Vinyl Ethers.

Abstract

Herein, we report the synthesis of a library of 17 sugar-based alternating copolymers via photoinduced radical copolymerization of naturally occurring levoglucosenone (LGO) and a broad range of commercially available vinyl ethers. This strategy leverages renewable feedstocks and enables precise control over copolymer sequence, affording materials with excellent thermal stability, tunable glass transition temperature (T_g), and on-demand degradability. The resulting sugar-based materials exhibit superior adhesive strength compared to commercial benchmarks such as commercial polyurethane adhesive and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA). Postpolymerization modifications further facilitate the preparation of fluorescent materials and graft semiconducting polymers, expanding the functional versatility of these sugar-based alternating copolymers.