ABSTRACT
Of the innumerable chemical advances in the twentieth century, one could argue that the development of polymers has had the most dramatic impact upon everyday living. Spurred by an overwhelming accumulation of fundamental knowledge in chemistry and physics, polymer science has blossomed into a field that has shaped, in part, both industry and academia. As part of the evolution of this field, numerous strategies have been developed for synthesizing polymers. These polymers, viewed simplistically, consist of covalently linked repeat units derived from single molecule precursors (monomers). However, recently there have been reports of ‘‘supramolecular polymers’’ [1] constructed from noncovalently associated monomers. Certainly, these studies challenge Carothers’ original notion that structural repeat units ‘‘are not capable of independent existence’’ [2]. Taken more broadly, supramolecular polymers encompass specific noncovalent interactions between repeat units and sidechains of classical covalent polymers, as well as interactions of these polymers with small molecules.
