Recent Developement of Polymerization Using Transition Metal Complexes as Catalyst

Abstract

Recent studies on polymerization using transition metal complexes as catalyst are reviewed. Ti, W, and Ru complexes catalyze ring opening metathesis polymerization of cyclic olefins such as norbornene and cyclooctene to give the corresponding polymers. Living polymerization is achieved in many cases. Structures and reactivities of cyclopentadienyl complexes of Ti, Zr, and Hf are investigated in order to elucidate reaction mechanism of olefin polymerization catalyzed by Kaminsky system. Transition metal complex catalyzed synthetic organic reactions such as carbonylation of organic halides, arylation of olefins as well as cross-coupling of Grignard reagents with organic halides have been applied to preparation of various polymers. Coupling reaction of aryl halides promoted by Ni complex is developed to preparation of π-conjugated polymers which show interesting electrical and optical properties.