From Stereospecific Polymerization to Asymmetric Autocatalytic Synthesis of Macromolecules

Abstract

Abstract Macromolecular chemistry is a relatively young science. Though natural and synthetic macromolecular substances had long been known, it was only between 1920 and 1930 that Hermann Staudinger placed our knowledge of the chemical structure of several macromolecular substances on a scientific basis. In the wake of Staudinger's discoveries and hypotheses, macromolecular chemistry has made considerable progress. Very many synthetic macromolecular substances were prepared both by polymerization and by polycondensation; methods were found for the regulation of the value and distribution of molecular weights; attempts were made to clarify the relationships existing among structure, chemical regularity, molecular weight, and physical and technological properties of the macromolecular substances. It was far more difficult to obtain synthetic macromolecules having a regular structure both from the chemical and steric point of view. An early result in this field, which aroused a certain interest in relation to elastomers, was the preparation of a polybutadiene having a very high content of trans-1,4 monomeric units, in the presence of heterogeneous catalysts. A wider development of this field was made possible by the recent discovery of stereospecific polymerization. This led to the synthesis of sterically regular polymers as well as to that of new classes of crystalline polymers.