X-Yne Click Polymerization

Alkyne-based click polymerizations have been nurtured into a powerful synthetic technique for the synthesis of new polymers with advanced structures and versatile functionalities. Among them, the emerging thiol-yne, hydroxyl-yne and amino-yne click polymerizations have made remarkable progresses from reactions to applications. All three polymerizations avoid the usage of inherently dangerous monomer and are safer to operate than the classical azide-alkyne click polymerization, making them more prospective for widespread applications. To greatly promote the new alkyne-based click polymerizations beyond the azide-alkyne click polymerization, we propose a new concept of “X-yne click polymerization” to unify them. In this Perspective, we mainly give a brief account of the progression of X-yne click polymerization and discuss in detail the challenges and opportunities in this field.