Patent ID: 8247524

Claim:
A process for the preparation of a supramolecular polymer comprising quadruple hydrogen bonding units within the polymer backbone, wherein at least a monomer comprising a 4H unit is incorporated in the polymer backbone via two to four reactive groups, and the 4H units are incorporated in the polymer backbone by two covalent bonds, the process comprising reacting in a bulk polymerization a monomeric unit (a) having a structure according to the following formulae: F 1 -4H*—F 1 or F 1 -4H*—F 2 with a macromonomeric unit (b) having a structure according to formula (V): P—(F i ) s (V) wherein s is 2-6, and P represents a polymer chain having a number average molecular weight of 100 to 100,000; and wherein the 4H* unit is represented by formula (VIIa) and (VIIb), and tautomers and/or enantiomers thereof: wherein the 4H* unit is connected to F 1 via R 1 and to F 1 or F 2 via R 3 , wherein R 2 is a random side chain or a hydrogen atom, the random side chain being a linear, cyclic or branched alkyl group comprising 1 to 7 carbon atoms, X is a nitrogen atom or a carbon atom to which a group R 4 is attached, R 1 -R 4 are selected from the group consisting of hydrogen atoms and shorter or longer chains, the longer and shorter chains being selected from the group consisting of saturated or unsaturated, branched, cyclic or linear alkyl chains, aryl chains, alkaryl chains, arylalkyl chains, ester chains and ether chains.