Abstract
Over the last two decades many synthetic methods have been reported to selectively introduce a number of different functional groups at the chain end of a living ring-opening metathesis polymer. In this personal account, I would like to focus on a few such methods developed in my research group over the last several years and how these led to the discovery of catalytic living ring-opening metathesis polymerization, a ring-opening metathesis polymerization method controlled by the polymer end groups. This account consists of the following sections:
1 Introduction
2 Functionalization of the Propagating Chain End
3 Functionalization of the Initiating Chain End
4 Polymerization Control by Functional End Groups
5 Conclusions
Keywords
Grubbs catalyst - ring-opening metathesis - polymer end groups - degenerative chain transfer - polymerization
