Summary, Conclusions, and Future Work

The discovery of the ROP of metallocenophanes also provides impetus for the preparation of new strained organometallic species. For example, [l]ruthenocenophanes, which would be expected to be even more ring- 

Finally, the polymers produced from the ROP reactions, which are very rare examples of high molecular weight, well-defined polymers with skeletal transition metal atoms held in close proximity to one another, are of considerable interest with respect to their properties and possible applications (93). The most promising materials derived from [1]- or [2]metallo-cenophanes appear to be the poly(ferrocenylsilanes) which are easy to prepare from the readily available starting materials, ferrocene and di-chloroorganosilanes, of which many are provided by the silicone industry. Although the main features of these polymers appear to have been elucidated, much detailed work remains to be done to fully understand the characteristics of these unusual materials. It is expected that many interesting developments will result in the near future from studies of the 

Our research on the use of ROP as a route to transition metal-based polymers has been supported by the Ontario Center of Materials Research (OCMR), the ACS Petroleum Research Fund (PRF), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Institute of Chemical Science and Technology (ICST). Research on Ihe detailed properties of the polymers is being carried out in collaboration with the Polymer Materials Science Research Group of Professor G. Julius Vancso at the University of Toronto. I would also like to acknowledge and thank my very talented and enthusiastic coworkers who have carried out this research and whose names are found in the references. 1 am also grateful to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for a fellowship (1994-1996). 

Ul) Zeigler, J. M. Fearon, F. W. G. (Eds.) Silicon-Based Polymer Science Advances in Chemistry Vol. 224 American Chemical Society Washington, D.C., 1990. 

Interrante, L. V. Chem. Mater. 1989, I, 564, and references cited therein. 

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