Abstract
This article describes the recent development in the field of polymerizations of polar and nonpolar monomers catalyzed by non-metallocene type initiators. Brookhart discovered block copolymerization of ethylene with alkyl acrylate and also linear polymerization of 1-olefins with Ni or Pd diimide complexes. Living polymerization of 1-olefins was achieved for the first time using Ti-amide complexes by Scollard. The polymerization of methyl methacrylate by Yb [C (SiMe3) 3] 2 produced high molecular weight polymers (Mn>200 × 103) with very narrow molecular weight distribution (Mw/Mn=1.1) and high isotacticity (97%). As a consequence, stereo-complex was obtained by mixing the isotactic polymer with highly syndiotactic poly (methyl methacrylate) synthesized by [Cp2*SmH] 2. As a polar monomer, an alkyl isocyanate was polymerized by TiC13OCH2CF3 by Novak. Polymerizations of acetylenes and conjugated dienes were realized using rare earth metal complexes.
