Ring-opening polymerization

Abstract

Ring-opening polymerization is defined by IUPAC (Penczek, S., Moad, G. (2008). Glossary of the terms related to kinetics, thermodynamics, and mechanisms of polymerization. (IUPAC Recommendations 2008), Pure and Applied Chemistry, 80(10), 2163-2193) as (cit.) "Ring-opening polymerization (ROP): Polymerization in which a cyclic monomer yields a monomeric unit that is either acyclic or contains fewer rings than the cyclic monomer". The large part of the resulting polymerizations is living/controlled; practically all belong to chain polymerizations. After the introduction, providing basic information on chain polymerizations, the paper presents the concise overview of major classes of monomers used in ROP, including cyclic ethers, esters, carbonates, and siloxanes as well as cyclic nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur containing monomers. There are discussed also thermodynamics, kinetic polymerizability, and major mechanisms of ROP. Special attention is concentrated on polymers prepared by ROP on industrial scale.