Dear Colleagues,

Smart polymers are a class of dynamically developing macromolecules with potential use in life science and pharmaceutical fields. They respond to environmental conditions mimicking behavior of structures and functions of living organisms to adapt to variations in nature. Stimuli-responsive and switchable polymers react through physical or chemical changes, automatically adapting their properties to even small changes in the microenvironment, e.g. temperature, pH, light or redox potential. As a consequence of their sensitivity for external stimuli, such polymeric materials are widely considered as carriers of active substances e.g. drugs, active substances and genes, creating intelligent controlled delivery systems with slow sustained release of substances.

To precisely determine the properties of smart materials and to thoroughly drive the action, the knowledge about its chemical structure, thus well-defined architecture is mandatory. Polymers with predetermined structures and branched architecture are widely provided by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) techniques, especially with low catalyst concertation avoiding contamination of the final polymer product. In the last decade, there have been increasing research activities in the use of ATRP to prepare well-defined polymers. ATRP is one of the most rapidly developing areas of polymer science that allows easily control over molecular weight, preparation of polymers with narrow molecular weight distributions, incorporation of precisely placed functionalities, and fabrication of various architectures. Significant efforts have been dedicated to the green chemistry class of this approach including low ppm ATRP techniques (which are based on improving regeneration processes of copper in the lower oxidation state using appropriate reducing agent or external stimuli) and metal-free ATRP solution (with photoredox catalytic cycle achieved by a single electron transfer from photoinitiator).

This Special Issue is intended to cover the latest advances and developments in the synthesis of precisely defined polymers with different architecture with the emphasize on ATRP methods with diminished catalyst concentration that offers a more environmentally benign and industrially relevant alternative for synthesizing polymers compared to normal ATRP. Topics including, but not limiting to, optimization of reaction setup, kinetics investigation of synthesis processes, characterization of ATRP macroinitiators and received macromolecules including naturally-derived polymers.

It is my pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue. Original, high-quality research articles and reviews are all welcome.

Prof. Dr. Paweł Chmielarz
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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