Polymers metal-side organometallic

It is clear from the preceding discussion that organometallic photoinitiators (metal carbonyl or chelate derivatives) can provide a convenient route for synthesizing vinyl polymers with a variety of different reactive end group or photoreactive pendant groups or side chains through the polymer chain. 

Block co-polymers exhibit outstanding potential for a variety of applications as a result of their self-assembly into supramolecular structures (see Section 1.2.4). However, the exploration of organometallic multi-block materials was only begun in the early 1990s. Block co-polymers derived from the living anionic polymerization of vinylferrocene have been already briefly mentioned in Section 12.06.2.2.l.(i). In this section, side-chain metal-containing block co-polymers are surveyed. Examples of block co-polymers with metals in the main chain are discussed in Section 3.X. 

Lithiation Reactions. One of the earliest reactions of this type made use of metal-halogen exchange reactions carried out on poly[bis(p-bromophenoxy)phosphazene]. Polyphosphazenes that bear p-bromophenoxy side oups are normally unreactive. However, they can be lithiated, as shown in Scheme III, and the lithio derivatives react with a wide variety of electrophiles that range from chlorophosphines (19) to organometallic halides (42-45), This provides an access route to polymer-bound transition metal catalysts and other metallated or silylated polymers. 

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