KINETICS AND MECHANISMS IN ANIONIC RING-OPENING POLYMERIZATION

Recent advances in the anionic ring-opening polymerization (AROP), including covalent (pseudoanionic) polymerization, are reviewed. Thermodynamics, kinetics, and mechanisms of AROP are discussed, covering mostly polymerization of oxiranes, lactones and cyclic siloxanes as monomers. The following general problems of AROP are discussed: anionic polymerizability, thermodynamics - particularly of the monomers exhibiting low ring strain, chemistry of initiation, structures and reactivity of active species. New phenomena, particularly polymerization with reversibly aggregating species are analyzed in more detail. Chain transfer to polymer - the major side reaction - is analyzed quantitatively, by introducing the selectivity parameter beta, expressed by the ratio k(p)/k(tr). This parameter has been determined for the anionic and pseudoanionic polymerization of epsilon-caprolactone.