On New Chemical Reactions of Polymers

INTRODUCTION Three major areas of work present themselves to a chemist who is concerned with polymer materials namely: synthesis and degradation of polymers; structure analysis of natural and synthetic polymers; and chemical transformations of polymers. Although these three fields are very closely related,. I wish to concern myself only with the last of them. Reactions with natural or synthetic polymers have played an important role in technology for a number of decades. I need only mention the nitration and acetylation of cellulose, the sulphochiorination of polyethylene, which leads to Hypalon, or, to give a more recent example, the use of reactive dyes. Chemical transformations of macromolecules are also of great importance in connection with basic research in polymer chemistry. I wish especially to call attention to the fact that many biochemical processes occur through reactions in dissolved macromolecules or on polymer surfaces. Due to the great significance of polymers with reactive groups, several papers are devoted to this subject at each IUPAC symposium. I need only mention the main lectures of Smets on analogous polymer reactions1, of Overberger on biologically active polymers2 and of Manecke on enzyme resins3 in Montreal, Prague and Tokyo respectively. But in view of the great number of publications which appear annually on the subject, it is not possible to present a comprehensive survey within the compass of a single lecture and I shall be obliged to restrict myself to certain aspects. I have chosen topics which have not been treated at previous symposia and to which our group in Mainz has been able to make contributions. I wish to discuss the following items: