Coordination Polymerisation of Non-hydrocarbon Heterocyclic and Heterounsaturated Monomers

The exceptional behaviour of heterounsaturated monomers of carbene-like structure, such as carbon monoxide and isocyanides, should be remembered here. Carbon monoxide readily undergoes copolymerisation with various unsaturated hydrocarbon monomers via coordination with transition metals [2]. By contrast, isocyanides are homopolymerised via coordination with a 

The coordination polymerisation and copolymerisation of heterocyclic monomers have been restricted in industry to a much smaller volume than the polymerisation and copolymerisation of hydrocarbon monomers polyether elastomers from epichlorohydrin and ethylene oxide or propylene oxide, and allyl glycidyl ether as the vulcanisable monomeric unit, are produced on a larger scale [4-7], 

As regards the coordination homopolymerisation of heterounsaturated monomers, it does not play such an important role as in the case of heterocyclic monomers (with the exception of carbon monoxide). This is because of the high polymerisability of heterounsaturated monomers in the presence of ionic initiators which is taken into account in some industrial processes (e.g. polyformaldehyde). 

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