Polymer Mechanochemistry: A New Frontier for Physical Organic Chemistry

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Polymer mechanochemistry aims at understanding and exploiting the unique chemistry that is possible when stretching macromolecular chains beyond their strain-free contour lengths. This happens when chains are subject to a mechanical load, in bulk, in solution, at interfaces or as single molecules in air. Simple polymers such as polystyrene or polymethacrylate fragment via homolysis of a backbone C–C bond, and much contemporary effort in polymer mechanochemistry has focused on creating polymers which undergo more complex and interesting reactions, with such productive mechanochemical responses including mechanochromism and load strengthening. Comparatively less progress has been achieved in creating an internally coherent, theoretically sound interpretational framework to organize, systematize, and generalize the existing manifestations of polymer mechanochemistry and to guide the design of new mechanochemical systems. The experimental, computational, and conceptual tools of physical organic chemistry appear particularly well suited to achieve this goal, benefiting both fields.