Recent advance in living anionic polymerization of functionalized styrene derivatives

摘要

This review covers recent advance of living anionic polymerization of styrene derivatives with functional groups. Although there have so far been reported several successful systems of living anionic polymerization of functionalized styrene derivatives, most useful functional groups are not amenable to the conditions of livng anionic polymerization of styrene. Therefore, we herein present two generalized strategies to be able t achieve the living anionic polymerization of styrenes with such functional groups that are normally incompatible with carbanionic species. The first strategy involves protection of the functional group and living anionic polymerization of the resulting protected monomer, followed by deprotection to regenerate the original functional group after the polymerization. In the second strategy, an electron-withdrawing functional group is introduced into the benzene ring of styrene to purposefully lower the reactivity of the generated chain-end carbanion, thereby allowing the functional group and the carbanion to coexist. The living anionic polymerization of a number of styrene derivatives with functional groups became indeed possible by employing two proposed strategies. Their scopes, limitations, and possibilities are also discussed.