Elemental Selenium-Derived Poly(sulfide selenide)s: A Platform of Photodegradable and Electrochemical Responsive Polymers

Selenium-containing polymers have numerous attractive properties, such as light response behaviors, biocompatibilities, and heavy-metal-ion adhesive ability. However, the lack of efficient strategies for constructing selenium-containing polymers limits their development. Herein, a facile but efficient strategy is proposed for synthesizing poly(sulfide selenide)s directly from elemental selenium and episulfides in the presence of an organocatalyst system. This strategy affords diverse poly(sulfide selenide)s with high sulfide–selenide linkage selectivity (>99%). The mechanism exploration reveals that the sulfide–selenide linkage selectivity is affected by the nucleophilicity of the organic bases: the organic base with high nucleophilicity leads to the high sulfide–selenide linkage selectivity. Notably, the poly(sulfide selenide)s exhibit excellent photodegradable nature. Furthermore, the excellent electrochemical properties of these poly(sulfide selenide)s enable their application in electrochemical CO₂ capture. The high monomer compatibility of this method leads to a series of poly(sulfide selenide)s with diverse structures and thus various thermal and optical performances.