Microwave-assisted polymer synthesis: State-of-the-art and future perspectives

Monomodal microwaves have overcome the safety uncertainties associated with the precedent domestic microwave ovens. After fast acceptance in inorganic and organic syntheses, polymer chemists have also recently discovered this new kind of microwave reactor. An almost exponential increase of the number of publications in this field reflects the steadily growing interest in the use of microwave irradiation for polymerizations. This review introduces the microwave systems and their applications in polymer syntheses, covering step-growth and ring-opening as well as radical polymerization processes, in order to summarize the hitherto realized polymerizations. Special attention is paid to the differences between microwave-assisted and conventional heating as well as the "microwave effects".