Sorted building blocks: Poly(propylene carbonate) stereogradient

(PhysOrg.com) -- The properties of polymers—long chain molecules from which plastics are made—depend on the type of individual building blocks in them, as well as the order they are in and how they are arranged in space. Although the order of the components can easily be controlled, control of their spatial arrangement, called stereochemistry, remains one of the biggest challenges in polymer chemistry. Kyoko Nozaki and a team from the University of Tokyo report in the journal Angewandte Chemie that they have made the first poly(propylene carbonate) with polymer chains built up in the form of a gradient of two stereochemically different propylene building blocks.

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