A glance at the relation of stepwise coupling polymerization to supramolecular chemistry

A relationship between supramolecular chemistry and stepwise coupling polymerization (SCP) found by our group is briefly described. By SCP reaction a series of new kinds of microstructure-controlled polymers and their corresponding supramolecular inclusions such as: (1) reactive ladder-like polysiloxanes (LPS); (2) liquid crystalline ladder-like polysiloxanes and their metal complexes including fishbone-like LCPs (FBLCPs) and their metal complexes (M-FBLCPs) and rowboat-like LCPs (RBLCPs); (3) tubular polymers (TPs) and their supramolecular inclusions (TPIs) and (4) sieve-plate-like network polymers (SNPs) and their supramolecular clathrates (SNPC) have been successfully prepared. It is reasonably stated that SCP is a supramolecular interaction-aided reaction and moreover, SCP is an effective method to generate new supramolecules.