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Well-defined multicrystalline multiblock polymers are essential model polymers for advancing the physics of crystallization but due to the different chain properties and incompatible synthetic methodologies, multicrystalline multiblock polymers with more than two crystallites are rarely reported. Here the authors combine polyhomologation, ring-opening polymerization and a catalyst switch strategy to synthesize a pentacrystalline pentablock quintopolymer.

Polymeric nanofibers are attractive nanomaterials owing to their high surfacearea- to-volume ratio and superior flexibility but designing durable and recyclable polymer nanofibers is challenging. Here, the authors integrate the concept of covalent adaptable networks to produce dynamic covalently crosslinked nanofibers via electrospinning.

One-pot/one-step polymerizations are ideal with regards to efficiency and simplicity of copolymerization, but can be difficult for the practitioner to control. Here the authors perform one-pot/one-step polymerizations with three monomers, producing diblock dialternating terpolymers with precise alternating structure.

Poly(glycidyl azide) is an excellent energetic binder or plasticizer, however its production relies on post-modificaiton strategies. Here, the authors directly produced Poly(glycidyl azide) via anionic ring-opening polymerization of glycidyl azide monomer, which is additionally co-polymerized with CO₂ and epoxides.

Polymerizations promoted by organic catalysts can produce polymeric materials without any metallic residues contamination. Here the authors show a fluorinated alcohol based catalytic system for polypeptide synthesis from α-amino acid N-carboxyanhydride, fulfilling cocatalyst and metal free conditions with high rate and selectivity.

When faced with the most cutting-edge problems in materials science, the 'right' research infrastructure can be as important as the quality of the scientific ideas. European researchers are being asked to consider a more inclusive way of doing science.

Alkali metal carboxylates, which are readily available and widely used as food additives, were found to promote the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of trimethylene carbonate (TMC) to produce poly(trimethylene carbonate) (PTMC). The sodium acetate-catalyzed ROP of TMC proceeded in the presence of an alcohol initiator under solvent-free conditions, even at very low catalyst loadings of 0.01–0.0001 mol%. This ROP system enabled the synthesis of PTMCs with predicted molecular weights ranging from 2400 to 11 700 g mol⁻¹ and narrow dispersities (~1.23).

Recent progress in ring-opening (co)polymerization of γ-butyrolactone (γBL) in the presence of various initiating/catalyst systems has been reviewed. Low reaction temperatures and high monomer concentrations are critical for the success of such polymerization, regardless of the different initiating/catalyst systems.

A method is described that can predict the miscibility of the great majority of polyolefins based just on their chemical architecture. The miscibility of polyolefins is shown to be essentially controlled by their solubility parameters, d, which in turn depend on the chain dimensions of the chains through the packing length l_p. A method to estimate l_p from chain architecture is also shown, giving a very powerful mechanism to predict the mixing thermodynamics from chemical structure.