Special issue 'Cyclic polymers: New developments'

摘要

The cyclic topology remains a compelling and challenging topic within the field of polymer science. In this special issue, we have collected a variety of papers representing three complementary subcategories of macrocycle research: synthetic approaches, theory and modeling, and physical studies and characterization. Among the synthetic investigations, the ring-closure methodology remains popular as attested by the work of Yamamoto and Tezuka, Tillman, Zhang, and Hodge. Yamamoto and Tezuka use electrostatic attraction to template their four-armed star polymers into a bicyclic "figure-8 shaped" configuration prior to locking this topology through covalent fixation.