1. Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
2. Shaanxi Yuneng Group Energy and Chemical Industry Research Institute Co. , Ltd. , Yulin 719000, China
3. College of Chemistry, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan 411105, China
Hybrid block copolymers, consisting of two or more polymeric segments with significantly different chemical structures and physicochemical properties, are readily prone to self-assembly and microphase separation and thus highly attractive for fundamental studies and materials applications. One-step sequence-selective block copolymerization of mixed heterogeneous monomers ( with different polymerizing groups) is the ideal method for synthesizing hybrid block copolymers. However, great challenges have long been associated with this method for the incompatibility of mechanistically distinct polymerizations and the highly stringent kinetic requirements. The recent surge of organocatalytic/metal-free polymerization has heavily spurred the advancement
of this area with a series of novel and effective monomer/catalyst designing strategies. The progress is reviewed for the combinations of heterocyclic monomers and heterocyclic/vinyl monomers, with the key mechanistic aspects
briefly elucidated.