Recent Progress in the Vinylic Polymerization and Copolymerization of Norbornene Catalyzed by Transition Metal Catalysts

Abstract

Here progress in the development of the catalytic addition polymerization and copolymerization of norbornene by various transition-metal complexes is described. A full literature account is given in this review mostly covering the years of 2000 to the early of 2009. The interest in vinyl homo-polynorbornene is driven by its dielectric and mechanical properties for the technical application as an interlevel dielectric in microelectronics applications. For comparison, the norbornene/olefin copolymerization is also considered. The metal catalysts of Ti, Cr, Zr, V, Fe, Co, Ni, Pd and Cu are introduced and methylalumoxane (MAO) or perfluorinated borane, e.g. B(C ₆ F ₅ ) ₃ , cocatalysts are presented in terms of their activity and ligand effects are emphasized.

Keywords:

• catalysis
• norbornene
• polymerization
• copolymerization
• vinyl/addition
• catalysts

Acknowledgements

The support by the Education Bureau of Hubei Province (Project D2006-28004), the Technologies R&D Programme of Hubei Province (Project 2005AA401D57, 2006AA101C39), the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (Project 2007ABA295) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project 20872044) are gratefully acknowledged.