Aliphatic Polycarbonates: From Functional Platform Materials to Foundation Models

The breadth of applications for aliphatic polycarbonates has been driven by advances in preparation of functionalized monomers, their controllable polymerization, and facile routes to post-polymerization functionalization. The concomitant development new organocatalysts for ring-opening polymerization and continuous-flow synthesis platforms, further serves to both amplify the functional and architectural diversity of aliphatic polycarbonates as well as provides a straightforward means to precisely scale their preparation. Despite these advances, the design, synthesis, and evaluation of novel aliphatic polycarbonate platforms for different applications remains a tedious and labor-intensive endeavor. In this talk, we will cover how the evolution of synthetic methodology, catalyst design, and post-polymerization modification techniques help push both the boundaries of aliphatic polycarbonate applications and contribute to the development of new data representation systems and foundational artificial intelligence models for the accelerated discovery of new functional materials.