Abstract
The numerous merits of conjugated polymers (CPs) have encouraged scientists to develop a
variety of synthetic routes to CPs with diverse structures and functionalities. Among the large
scope of substrates, alkyne plays an important role in constructing polymers with conjugated
backbones. In addition to some well-developed reactions including Glaser-Hay and Sonogashira
coupling, azide/thiol-yne click reaction and cyclotrimerization, some novel alkyne-based reactions
have also been explored such as oxidative polycoupling, decarbonylative polycoupling and multicomponent
tandem polymerizations. This review focuses on the recent progress on the synthetic
methodology of CPs in the last five years using monomers with two or more triple bonds and
some of their high-technological applications. Selected examples of materials properties of these
CPs are given in this review, such as fluorescence response to chemical or physical stimuli,
magnetism, white light emission, cell imaging and bio-probing. Finally, a short perspective is
raised in regard to the outlook of the preparation methodologies, functionalities as well as
potential applications of CPs in the future.