MACROMOLECULAR ARCHITECTURE FOR THE 21ST-CENTURY - NEW PRODUCTS FROM OLD MONOMERS

Due to the high entry costs for new monomers, polymer products for the 21st century will mainly consist of the monomer mix we have now. The demand for new properties will therefore have to be satisfied by chang es in macromolecular architecture. Examples which are discussed includ e: Block polymers (AB, ABA, (AB)(n), ABC, tapered), star polymers (rig id, block, fexible), ladder polymers, graft or comb polymers (from mac romonomers), hyperbranched polymers, hypercrosslinked polymers, sequen tial copolymers. and starburst dendrimers. In addition, control of cha in stereo chemistry will increasingly come into play. Synthetic techni ques for obtaining these architectural forms are discussed as well as, potential uses for these new products.