These two decades, the synthetic strategy of cyclic polymer is heated studied. However, the applications of such polymer are not as much as people expect. Especially these years, the investigation of cyclic polymers are not so common in publications, although there are some outstanding professors have done excellent work in this field. How does everyone think of it?
I guess the answer should be: because the "cyclic polymer" - is not a polymer at all, but a rather small molecule consisting of, say 3 - 6 monomer units. As s small molecule - it possesses the properties not typical for common polymers; also its processing in products - demands absolutely other ways than processing of polymers. And in most cases it is possible to find a simple organic compound - much easier to deal with the "cyclic polymers"
This is true, nevertheless in the early 2000's I expected a higher interest in CBT and related materials which could be used to infuse composites with high fiber content and resulting in thermoplastic matrix composites that can be recycled by conventional technologies. pCBT proved to be a bit brittle but that cold be mitigated by copolymerization and other modification. Nevertheless GE sold this business which did not seem viable as an independent business. It may have economic reasons (the production of CBT is expensive, or a scale problem?)
The polymers, important for applications are already have wide collections. I don't think people will spend more money and time to work on something new. The importance of research now go towards finding new composites, which also hindered the work on cyclic polymers.
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