Sulfur-containing polymers are important functional materials and can be used as optical

anti-corrosion and antifouling materials. Using C1 monomers (

i

.

e

. carbonyl sulfide (COS)

carbon disulfide (CS

2

)) to copolymerize with epoxides have been rapidly developed in very recent years. Recently

Xing-Hong Zhang

et al

. reported a metal-free living copolymerization of COS with epoxides

via

the cooperative catalysis of organic Lewis pairs including organic bases and thioureas as hydrogen-bond donors

afforded poly(monothiocarbonate)s with 100% alternating degree

>

99% tail-to-head content

high molecular weight (up to 9.84 × 10

5

) and narrow molecular weight distributions (1.13 – 1.23). The turnover frequencies (TOFs) of the catalyst are as high as 112 h

−1

at 25 °C. Kinetic and mechanistic results suggest that the supramolecular specific recognition of thiourea to epoxide and base to COS promoted the copolymerization cooperatively. The synthesis of sulfur-containing polymer developed by Xing-Hong Zhang and co-workers is very promising to the utilization of C1 monomers derived from the use of oil and coal.