The incorporation of halogen bonding into polymer architectures is a new approach for the design of functional materials. This perspective emphasizes the current development in the field of halogen bonding featuring polymer materials.

A bis-bidentate halogen bond linker was introduced into a fully organic, phosphate based ionomer, yielding a crosslinked network with healing abilities and improved mechanical properties.

An anion sensor is presented that combinesabidentateh ydrogen-(HB) or halogen-bonding (XB) site with a luminescent monocationic Ir fragment for strongb inding of common anions (K a up to 6 10 4 m À1)w ith diagnostice mission changes. An ew emission-based protocol for fast and reliabled etection was derived on the basis of correction for systematic but unspecificb ackground effects. Such as imple correction routine circumvents the hitherto practical limitations of systematic emission-based analysis of anion binding with validated open-source software (BindFit).T he anticipated order of K a values was obeyed according to size and ba-sicity of the anions(Cl > Br = OAc) as well as the donor atom of the receptor (XB:6 10 4 m À1 > HB:5 10 3 m À1), and led to submicromolar limitso fd etection within minutes.T he results were further validated by advanced NMR techniques, and corroborated by X-ray crystallographic dataa nd DFT analysis, which reproduced the structural and electronic features in excellent agreement. The resultss uggest that correctedemission-baseds ensingm ay become ac omplementary,r eliable, and fast tool to promote the use of XB in various application fields,d ue to the simple and fast opticald etermination at high dilution.

The supramolecular halogen bonding (XB) is utilized for the first time for the preparation of shape‐memory polymers. For this purpose, an iodotriazole‐based bidentate XB donor featuring a methacrylamide is synthesized. Free radical polymerization of the XB donor monomer together with butyl methacrylate, triethylene glycole dimethacrylate, and methacrylic acid results in covalently cross‐linked polymer networks bearing both, halogen bond acceptors and donors, in their side chains. While the reversible halogen bond interactions can act as switching unit, the required stable phase of the shape‐memory polymers is formed by covalent cross‐links. The successful formation of the supramolecular cross‐links is proven via Fourier‐transform Raman spectroscopy. Furthermore, the thermal properties are investigated via differential scanning calorimetry and thermo gravimetric analysis. Thermo‐mechanical analysis reveals excellent shape‐memory abilities with fixity rates above 95% and recovery rates up to 99%. Moreover, it is possible to 3D‐print this kind of material exhibiting the ability to recover its shape within a few seconds at 130 °C.