Recent advances in alkyne-based click polymerizations

Click chemistry, with remarkable advantages such as high efficiency, atom economy, mild reaction conditions, very high yield, regio- and/or stereoselectivity, and good functionality tolerance, has been nurtured into a powerful polymerization technique with widespread applications. Among various click polymerizations, alkyne-based click polymerization is the most prominent one. Recently, impressive progress has been made toward the further development of azide-alkyne click polymerization (AACP) and thiol-yne click polymerization, in which chain-growth AACP and spontaneous thiol-yne click polymerization are the most representative examples, respectively. Meanwhile, unprecedented amino-yne click polymerization and hydroxyl-yne click polymerization have emerged as efficient polymerization techniques for the preparation of polymers with advanced structures and versatile properties. In this minireview, we aim to give a brief summary of alkyne-based click polymerizations. Particularly, the recent significant progress in the area is highlighted and introduced in detail. The multicomponent polymerization mediated by Cu(i)-catalyzed AACP is also mentioned. Furthermore, the existing challenges and the promising opportunities are briefly discussed.