POLYMERIZATION WITHIN CONFINED NANOCHANNELS OF POROUS METAL-ORGANIC FRAMEWORKS

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been increasingly investigated as templates for precise control of polymerization. Polymerizations within confined nanochannels of porous MOFs have shown unique confinement and alignment effect on polymer chain structures and thus are promising ways to achieve well-defined polymers. Herein, this review will focus on illustrating the recent progress of polymerization within confined nanochannels of MOFs, including radical polymerization, coordination polymerization, ring-opening polymerization, catalytic polymerization, etc. It will demonstrate how the heterogeneous MOF structures (pore size, pore shapes, flexible structures, and versatile functional groups) affect the polymeric products' molecular weight, molecular weight distribution, tacticity, reaction sites, copolymer sequence, etc. Meanwhile, we will highlight some challenges and foreseeable prospects on these novel polymerization methods.