Polymers tailor made

Haupt K. (2003). Imprinted polymers - Tailor-made mimics of antibodies and receptors. Chemical Communications, 2,171-178. 

The realization of sensitive bioanalytical methods for measuring dmg and metaboUte concentrations in plasma and other biological fluids (see Automatic INSTRUMENTATION BlosENSORs) and the development of biocompatible polymers that can be tailor made with a wide range of predictable physical properties (see Prosthetic and biomedical devices) have revolutionized the development of pharmaceuticals (qv). Such bioanalytical techniques permit the characterization of pharmacokinetics, ie, the fate of a dmg in the plasma and body as a function of time. The pharmacokinetics of a dmg encompass absorption from the physiological site, distribution to the various compartments of the body, metaboHsm (if any), and excretion from the body (ADME). Clearance is the rate of removal of a dmg from the body and is the sum of all rates of clearance including metaboHsm, elimination, and excretion. 

Christopher and Fox have given examples of the way in which polycarbonate resins may be tailor-made to suit specific requirements. Whereas the bis-phenol from o-cresol and acetone (bis-phenol C) yields a polymer of high hydrolytic stability and low transition temperature, the polymer from phenol and cyclohexanone has average hydrolytic stability but a high heat distortion temperature. By using a condensate of o-cresol and cyclohexanone a polymer may be obtained with both hydrolytic stability and a high heat distortion temperature. 

Polyolefin alloys Plascoat Systems Ltd. has developed a range of polyolefin alloys in its Performance Polymer Alloy (PPA) range. The exact compositions of these are secret. These products have been tailor-made to meet the needs of specific markets, e.g. 

The purpose of this paper is to thoroughly discuss the ability of anionic living polymerization methods to yield tailor-made polymers, and to discuss a number of examples of structures that have been obtained by these methods and adequately characterized. 

Interest in anionic polymerizations arises in part from the reactivity of the living carbanionic sites4 7) Access can be provided to polymers with a functional chain end. Such species are difficult to obtain by other methods. Polycondensations yield ro-functional polymers but they provide neither accurate molecular weight control nor low polydispersity. Recently Kennedy51) developed the inifer technique which is based upon selective transfer to fit vinylic polymers obtained cationically with functions at chain end. Also some cationic ring-opening polymerizations52) without spontaneous termination can yield re-functional polymers upon induced deactivation. Anionic polymerization remains however the most versatile and widely used method to synthesize tailor made re-functional macromolecules. 

The synthesis of tailor-made star-shaped polymers can be performed in several ways by means of a plurifunctional organometallic initiator, or by reacting a living precursor polymer with a plurifunctional reagent, to build the centra] body, or by block copolymerization involving a diunsaturated monomer (Scheme 3). 

The purpose of this review is to show how anionic polymerization techniques have successfully contributed to the synthesis of a great variety of tailor-made polymer species Homopolymers of controlled molecular weight, co-functional polymers including macromonomers, cyclic macromolecules, star-shaped polymers and model networks, block copolymers and graft copolymers. 

In 1839, Charles Goodyear discovered that sulfur could cross-link polymer chains and patented the process in 1844 [1]. Since then rubber became a widely usable material. By the year 1853, natural rubber (NR) was in short supply. So attempts were made to undo what Goodyear had accomplished. Goodyear himself was involved in trying to reclaim vulcanized rubber to overcome the shortage of NR. Later, as a consequence of World War I, Germany introduced synthetic rubbers, namely the Buna rubbers, which raised the curiosity of polymer chemists all over the world. Subsequently, synthetic rubbers with tailor-made properties were born. This was followed by the discovery of new methods and chemicals for vulcanization and processing. It is obvious... 

An important challenge in the design of novel conjugated polymers is the synthesis of materials with tailor-made solid-state electronic properties. This section outlines the synthesis of the most significant classes of poly(para-phenylenevinylene)s (PPVs), poly(para-phenylene)s (PPPs), and related structures. Furthermore, this review demonstrates that the chromophoric and electronic properties of conjugated rr-systems are sensitive to their molecular and supra-molecular architecture. 

Considering all given factors, ROM polymerisation can now be identified as the polymerisation method of choice for the synthesis of highly defined, tailor-made specialty polymers. 

Unsaturated groups are very interesting for application development because this specific functionality opens up a broad range of possibilities for further (chemical) modification of the polymer structure, and therefore its physical and material properties. The direct microbial incorporation of other functional substituents to the polymer side chains, e.g. epoxy-, hydroxy-, aromatic-, and halogen functional groups, influences the physical and material properties of poly(HAMCL) even further [28,33,35,39-41]. This features many possibilities to produce tailor-made polymers, depending on the essential material properties that are needed for the development of a specific application. 

---