This review focuses on the controlled radical polymerization of vinyl ether (VE) and the related self-assemblies. VE was long believed to be among the monomers that could not be radically homopolymerized. Under such circumstances, some groundbreaking polymerizations of VE have been discovered. Advances in research have made it possible to perform controlled radical polymerization with VE due to hydrogen bonds and/or cation-Ï€ interactions between VE monomers and the propagating radical. By using the resulting poly(VE)s, various functional polymers and nano-objects via polymerization-induced self-assembly can be obtained.
