Stereospecific Living Radical Polymerization: Dual Control of Chain Length and Tacticity for Precision Polymer Synthesis

A review of the special issue of Chemical Review covers stereospecific living radical polymerizations for dual control of molecular weights and tacticity of the resulting polymers. These polymers have been achieved by combining controlled or living radical polymerization and stereospecific radical polymerization. It also treats fundamental aspects and the latest developments in each topic before discussing the simultaneous control in detail. It reveals most of the developed controlled and living radical polymerizations are based on the controlled formation of the growing radical species from the polymer terminus through reversible activation of the dormant species. Most of the polymer chain ends are in the dormant state, while a significantly small fraction of the dormant terminals are activated into the highly active growing radical species to allow an intermittent propagation during these polymerizations.