Polymers containing metals

Biswas, M. and Mukherjee, A. Synthesis and Evaluation of Metal-Containing Polymers. Vol. 115, pp, 89-124,... 

In addition to the ferrocene-derived polymers, there have been reports of a few other metal-containing polymers with incorporated boron atoms. One such polymer... 

As described in Sect. 7.1, novel hybrid block copolymers comprising on one hand a classical synthetic polymer and on the other hand a metal-containing polymer, a synthetic or natural (proteine, enzyme, etc.) polypeptide have recently been synthesized. Other hybrid block copolymers containing inorganic blocks, dendrimers, etc. will certainly be prepared and thoroughly investigated in the next few years. 

In the 1950s, Speed was part of a large effort headed out of Wright Patterson Air Force Base aimed at developing thermally stable materials for a number of purposes including use for outer spacecraft. This effort acted as an early focal point for the synthesis of metal-containing polymers that lost out to the honey-combed ceramic tiles currently used on spacecrafts. 

Classical polymer chemistry emphasizes materials derived from about a dozen elements (including C, H, O, N, S, P, Cl, and F). Chapters 11 and 12 deal with polymers containing additional elements. The present chapter focuses on inorganic and metal-containing polymers containing organic units. 

The majority of inorganic reactions can be placed into one of two broad classes (1) oxidation-reduction (redox) reactions including atom and electron transfer reactions and (2) substitution reactions. Terms such as inner sphere, outer sphere, and photo-related reactions are employed to describe redox reactions. Such reactions are important in the synthesis of polymers and monomers and in the use of metal-containing polymers as catalysts and in applications involving transfer of heat, electricity, and light. They will not be dealt with to any appreciable extent in this chapter. 

There are a wide variety of inorganic and metal-containing polymers. The potential uses are many and include the broad areas of biomedical, electrical, optical, analytical, catalytic, building, and photochemical applications. 

Why is there interest in the synthesis and study of metal-containing polymers ... 

Abd-El-Aziz, A., Carraher, C., Pittman, C., Sheats, J., and Zeldin, M. 2004. Biomedical Applications of Metal-Containing Polymers. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. 

Manners, I. 2005. Synthetic Metal-Containing Polymers. Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. 

Strength, brittleness, and solvent permeability properties are limited because of lack of control of the ceramic composition on a macro- and microlevel. Even small particle sizes are large compared with the molecular level. There have been a number of attempts to produce uniform ceramic powders including the sol-gel synthesis in which processing involves a stable liquid medium, coprecipitation in which two or more ions are precipitated simultaneously. More recently, Carraher and Xu have used the thermal degradation of metal containing polymers to deposit metal atoms and oxides on a molecular level. 

---