Polymerisation of Coordinated Monomers

The active bond (Mt-X) of the coordination catalyst is stable in the uncom-plexed state, but monomer coordination results in enhanced cleavage susceptibility of this bond as well as the respective bond in the coordinating monomer, which results in the occurrence of the polymerisation initiation step, followed by the subsequent chain propagation steps. Thus, the mutual activation of the monomer and the catalyst when they form the complex is to be emphasised as a characteristic feature of coordination polymerisation. 

Finally, note that coordinative interactions between monomers and catalysts usually result in a specific spatial orientation of the coordinating monomer. In many cases, owing to the determined mode of configuration of the monomer with respect to the growing polymer chain at the active site, the propagation leads to a stereoregular polymer. 

Because of the great diversity of monomers undergoing coordination polymerisation in the presence of various catalysts, the different behaviour of various coordination polymerisation systems is to be noted. 

---