Precision Polymer Synthesis in Porous Metal-Organic Frameworks

Abstract

In recent years, there has been considerable interest in metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) composed of transition metal ions and bridging organic ligands. MOFs have highly crystalline channel structure with controllable channel size and shape. Their framework is flexible enough for guest inclusion and their surface functionality can be designed. Thus, they can be used for polymerization and the tailor-made nanocchannels allow for multi-level structural controls of the resulting polymers, such as molecular weight, stereoregularity, and chain arrangement. In this paper, recent progress in controlled polymerization utilizing MOF nanochannels is described, demonstrating why this polymerization system is attractive and promising from the viewpoints of precision polymer synthesis.