LINEAR POLYMERS CONTAINING TRANSITION METALS IN THE MAIN CHAIN.

Abstract

In recent years linear polymers containing transition metals have attracted much interest. There are two types of organometallic polymers in which the metal-containing portion is either a part of the polymer main chain or bound to the polymer as a pendant group. In this article the recent studies on the former type of linear polymers are reviewed on the basis of the following three parts: 1. metallocene-containing polymers; 2. linear ″Werner-type″ coordination polymers; 3. polymers containing sigma-bonded transition metals in the main chain. The main part of this review is devoted to a new class of soluble metal-poly-yne polymers in which transition metal atoms are joined in the main chain by a metal-carbon sigma -bond.