SPECIALTY AND ADVANCED POLYMERS BY CARBOCATIONIC MACROMOLECULAR ENGINEERING

This study briefly surveys a variety of new advanced polymeric materials and controlled synthetic processes available by carbocationic macromolecular engineering techniques and having potential commercial interest. These recent developments, mainly by living carbocationic polymerization, have led to new opportunities in polymerization process control, and in designing microstructure, functionality, molecular weight and molecular weight distribution (MWD) and thus properties of a wide variety of unique polymer systems. The fundamentals of these new emerging technologies and the novel materials offered by them, such as macromonomers, telechelics, polymers with pendant functional groups (liquid crystalline homo- and co-polymers, non-linear optical materials etc.), star-shaped macromolecules, block and graft copolymers, high temperature polymers, and specialty networks (amphiphilic networks and rubber toughened bone cements) as potential biomaterials will be overviewed.