Introduction to Chalcogen-containing polymers

The ability to impart diverse properties and functions into macromolecules is critical for the future of polymer science. One strategy is to install unique atoms or functional groups that convey a desired property or reactivity to the polymer. As a group of promising polymer materials, chalcogen-containing polymers have rapidly expanded in recent years, owing to their many intriguing and useful physical, optical, and material properties. For example, polyphenylene sulfides (PPSs) and polyphenylene sulfones (PPSUs) are well-known high-performance, super-engineering plastics with high thermal stability, excellent chemical resistance, good mold precision, and high stiffness and modulus. In this themed collection for Polymer Chemistry, we focus on the synthesis, structures, and functions of a large variety of sulfur- and selenium-containing polymers, including sulfur-rich polymers prepared from inverse vulcanization or related approaches, polysulfites, polysulfones, poly(disulfide)s, polythioethers, polydithiocarbonates, polymonothiocarbonates, polythioamides, poly(thiazolidin-2-imine)s, and conjugated polythiophenes, which have been synthesized from readily available chalcogen-containing monomers, such as elemental sulfur, SO2, thiols, carbonyl sulfide, S/Se-containing vinyl monomers, cyclic thiocarbonates, diisocyanates, and so on. Additionally, selenium and sulfur in polymers enable diverse properties not possible in other macromolecules, imparting unique capabilities in gold extraction, high-refractive-index optics applications, redox activity for rechargeable batteries, intracellular drug delivery, and multi-responsive photonic crystals. The themed collection contains review articles, communications, and 20 research papers from across the globe, curated to illustrate the growing and current interests in this field and the wide variety of fundamental and applied polymer projects that are motivated by the unique chemistry of chalcogen-containing polymers...