Anionic polymerization macromolecular engineering

Rempp P, Lutz P, Franta E (1994) Applications of anionic-polymerization to macromolecular engineering. J Macromol Sci Pure Appl Chem A31 891-909... 

Anionic polymerization was for a long time the only viable process to engineer sophisticated polymeric structures. Recently, the ROMP of cycloolefins has emerged of late as a powerful tool of macromolecular engineering. Its robust and "living" character that is associated with the development of catalysts tolerant of polar functions has been exploited to assemble original polymeric architectures. 

Living polymerization methods are an important part of macromolecular science and engineering. Since the initial reports of living anionic polymerizations, the field of living... 

The discovery of the living character of the anionic polymerization by M. Szwarc [93] has contributed tremendously to the domain of macromolecular engineering and especially to the synthesis of star-shaped polymers. Not only can the molar mass and the molar mass distribution of the branches be controlled in advance, but anionic polymerization has also demonstrated its efficiency in controlling the functionality of the star-shaped polymers. Earlier attempts to apply anionic polymerization to build star-shaped structures were focused essentially on arm-first methods. Well-defined star-shaped polymers exhibiting homopolymeric branches could thus be obtained. These samples have been studied to confirm expected structures or have served as models. Two decisive improvements have been made in the domain of application of anionic polymerization to the synthesis of well-defined star-shaped polymers ... 

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