Recent advances in catalyst- Transfer polycondensation for the synthesis of well-defined conjugated polymers

Conjugated polymers have received more and more attention due to their widespread applications in the field of organic optoelectronics and information displays.Most of the conjugated polymers are synthesized by transition-metal- complex catalyzed coupling reactions,which usually follow the step-growth mechanism,and require high purity monomers,high temperature and long reaction time to achieve samples of high molecular weight.However,the molecular weight,polydispersity and chain-ends of the resulting polymers are in general poorly controlled.Catalyst- Transfer polycondensation is a novel method for the synthesis of well-defined conjugated polymers.Because the catalyst can transfer through an intramolecular process to the propagating chain end that leads to the coupling reaction of the monomer with the polymer,such polymerization follows the chain-growth mechanism.With this newly developed method,various conjugated polymers,including homopolymers,copolymers,polymer brushes and hairy particles with controlled molecular weights and relatively narrow polydispersities (PDIs),have been prepared.In this progress report,the recent advances made in the field of catalyst- Transfer polycondensation have been summarized.The problems existed are pointed out and the future trends are discussed.