Catalyst Systems in Anionic Copolymerisations

The paper considers three areas of current interest in anionic polymerisation. Firstly, the factors governing the efficiencies of initiation of anionic electron transfer catalysts are discussed, and the differences between the initiation mechanism of this class of catalysts and that of alkali metals are highlighted. Secondly, the problems relating to the synthesis of telechelic polydienes of high 1,4 content by an anionic technique are examined in relation to the contradictory claims of recent authors. Finally an account is given of the present position in developing transformation reactions to prepare novel block copolymers.