Block copolymers main chain transition metals

Block Copolymers with Transition Metals in the Main Chain... 

BLOCK COPOLYMERS WITH TRANSITION METALS IN THE MAIN CHAIN... 

Chapter 1, written by Pittmann and Carraher, two of the early pioneers of the metallopolymer field, surveys the developments in the area in the 1960s and 1970s when metallopolymers were almost unknown. Chapter 2, by Abd-El-Aziz and Shipman, surveys the recent progress in the synthetic metallopolymer field. Chapter 3, by Rider and Manners, covers the recently emerging field of block copolymers with transition metal atoms in the main chain of at least one of the blocks. Synthetic routes to metal-containing block copolymers and applications in the field of... 

Broadening this comparison to include copolymers prepared by both early and late transition metal catalysts, the results discussed immediately above show that Ci-symmetric zirconocenes such as 9/MAO produce only copolymers with isolated norbornene units or alternating structures (at 30 C), mainly with isotactic (meso) configurations. C2-symmetric zirconocenes such as 2/MAO readily produce norbornene dyads that are exclusively meso-linkcd (isotactic). In accordance with their catalyst structures, Q-symmetric zirconocenes such as 8/MAO produce norbornene dyads with a rac-linkage (syndiotactic), although with a generally lower stereoselectivity. Palladium a-diimine catalysts, despite the homotopic nature of their coordination sides (that would be expected to give a mixture of meso and racemic blocks), produce norbornene dyads that are solely rac-connected. This behavior can be attributed to a chain-end control type polymerization mechanism. 

Therefore, as Mn2(CO)io was never employed in polymerizations of main chain fluorinated monomers, or with inactivated alkyl halides or with perfluoroalkyl iodides, we decided to assess its scope and limitations as photo-coinitiator and to demonstrate that such LjjMt-MtLjj photolyzable transition metal complexes afford the initiation of VDF polymerization directly from a variety of regular and (per)fluorinated alkyl halides (Cl, Br, I) even at rt, thus opening up novel synthetic avenues for the photome-diated synthesis of block and graft copolymers based on FMs. Second, we also set to kinetically explore such polymerization and investigate the possibility of Mn2(CO)io-mediated IDT-VDF-CRP. Third, we aimed to demonstrate the first examples of the synthesis of well-defined PVDF-block copolymers. 

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