Abstract
A NOVEL LIVING POLYMERization process that is governed by light could lead to the generation of functional and complex metal-rich polymer architectures. The growth of polymer chains by the repeated addition of monomers normally involves three steps: initiation of the process, propagation of the polymer chain, and chain termination. If there is no termination step, the process is known as a living polymerization, because the chains continue to grow as long as the chains are fed with monomers. Chemists in England and Canada now show that, in the presence of bright sunlight or light from a mercury lamp, ferrocene derivatives with a silicon atom bridging the two cyclopentadienyl ligands can be polymerized by using a cyclopentadienyl anion as a nucleophilic initiator ( Nature Mat. , published online May 14, dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmatl649). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a living polymerization of any monomer—organic or metal-containing—where the monomer needs to be ...
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