Diels–Alder Cycloaddition‐Cycloreversion: A Powerful Combo in Materials Design

Abstract

Abstract Reactive polymers are increasingly becoming materials of wide interest because they offer solutions to challenges in biomolecular immobilization, drug‐delivery and enzyme modifications. The Diels–Alder (DA) cycloaddition and the retro Diels–Alder (rDA) cycloreversion reaction in combination enables synthesis of maleimide based reactive polymeric materials. Also, the DA cycloaddition offer a reagent‐free ‘click’ reaction to construct various macromolecular architectures. Furthermore, the thermally reversible nature of the DA adducts makes them attractive building blocks for the design of thermoreversible materials. A discussion of some of the author's own research work in this area is presented in this article within the context of recent reports in polymer chemistry employing this reaction combo. magnified image