Organocatalytic ring-opening polymerization.

Modern synthetic methods have revolutionized polymer chemistry through the development of new and powerful strategies for the controlled synthesis of complex polymer architectures.1-5 Many of these developments were spawned by new classes of transition metal catalysts for the synthesis of new polyolefin microstructures,5 the design of highly efficient families of “living” polymerization strategies for the synthesis of block, graft, and star polymers,6-12 controlled methods for the synthesis of dendritic macromolecules,3,13,14 and, recently, strategies for the synthesis of cyclic polyolefins by a metathesis ring-expansion polymerization.15 Catalysis has proven an enabling science for chemical synthesis, and the development of new classes of well-defined catalysts has proven the enabling science for catalysis.16