Polymer materials have come under much scrutiny for the ever-growing amount of plastic waste they generate. Although much recent work focuses on making our current polymer economy more sustainable, efforts to do the same with conjugated polymers are only emerging. This perspective summarizes and contextualizes recent efforts in the synthesis of conjugated polymers, primarily including those with C?N bonds, which have recently garnered attention due to their potential for cleavage. Starting with the exploration of studies that help to understand the underlying chemistry of polyimines, their degradability, and the consequent technological implications are highlighted, which also extend to other cleavage linkers. Furthermore, emerging applications in optoelectronics are highlighted, which make use of the unique chemistry of the imine bond. Our perspective identifies polyimines as an opportunity for a new generation of stimuli-responsive and potentially recyclable and degradable functional materials.
Chakraborty et al. (Wed,) studied this question.