Emerging applications of dynamic covalent chemistry from macro- to nanoscopic length scales

Dynamic covalent chemistry (DCvC), involving a class of covalent bond‐forming reactions whose products can be rearranged or reverted back to the constituent reactants under particular reaction conditions, has many emerging applications ranging from organic electronics to molecular separations to drug delivery systems. This chapter builds on the techniques discussed in the preceding chapters by giving an overview of the use of DCvC in applications developed over the past several years across length scales from the macroscopic to the nanoscopic. In the first part of this chapter, we examine large‐scale applications involving self‐healing and stimuli‐responsive materials, followed by applications employing nanoscale assemblies in biomedical‐related fields, and the other fields where desirable attributes emerge from the well‐defined, robust nanoscale structures generated by DCvC, including organic electronics, gas storage, catalysis, and separations. Finally, potential new areas of DCvC in nanotechnology are explored.