FUNCTIONALIZED POLYOLEFINS PREPARED BY THE COMBINATION OF BORANE MONOMERS AND TRANSITION-METAL CATALYSTS

This paper summarizes the new developments in the functionalization of polyolefins by borane monomers and transition metal catalysts. It is becoming clear that the borane groups are stable to transition metal c atalysts and borane groups in polyolefins are valuable intermediates w hich not only can be quantitatively converted to a wide range of funct ional groups but also can be used as initiator for free radical graft- from copolymerizations. Some interesting functionalized polymers, such as polyethylene (PE) and polypropene (PP) with -OH, -NH2 and halide g roups, and graft copolymers of polypropene-graft-poly(methyl methacryl ate) (PP-g-PMMA), polypropene-graft-polycapolactone (PP-g-PCL) and PE- g-PMMA, have been synthesized with controllable compositions and molec ular microstructures. Most of them would be otherwise very difficult t o prepare by the other existing methods.