Ring-opening metathesis polymerization overview

In this chapter I will cover only well-defined or well-characterized compounds. Results will be included that have appeared since reviews in 1991 on alkylidene and metalacyclobutane complexes [41] and in 1993 on ring-opening metathesis polymerization [30], but an overview of prior results that are especially relevant to olefin metathesis in particular will also be included. (An excellent and comprehensive text also has been published recently [1].) The terms well-defined or well-characterized originally were meant to imply that the alkylidene complex is isolable and is essentially identical to that in a catalytic reaction except for the identity of the alkylidene. These terms have been watered down from time to time in the literature, even to the point where they are used to describe a catalyst that is formed from a well-characterized transition metal precursor complex, but whose identity actually is not known. In this article I... 

The present contribution deals primarily with the polymer synthesis via ring-opening metathesis polymerization. Acyclic diene metathesis (ADMET) [20,32-38], the other metathetic route to polymers is omitted. This article intends to give a brief overview, for more details and further applications see, e.g.. Refs. [1,4,20-29]. 

This chapter intends to give a brief overview over the ROMP of some selected cycloolefins to demonstrate the great utility of ring-opening metathesis polymerization. 

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