Project Details:

Definitions and Notations Relating to Stereochemical Aspects in Polymer Science

To disseminate throughout the scientific community authoritative guidelines on how to unambiguously specify the stereochemical properties of macromolecules which comply with all current IUPAC documents.

During the last decades several conflicting, if not contradictory systems for the description of the absolute and relative configuration of macromolecules have been used in the literature, while the need and importance of a clear description have grown. Some of the issues were addressed nearly thirty years ago in an IUPAC document with recommendations on the stereochemical description of polymers [Pure Appl. Chem. 53, 733-752 (1981); doi:10.1351/pac198153030733]. However, some of the definitions provided in this document are not consistent with definitions for the same terms and descriptors in organic chemistry. Furthermore, in the meantime stereochemistry has undergone tremendous development, both in polymer science and in organic chemistry. It is therefore necessary to revise and update the said document in the light of current IUPAC recommendations as well as recent scientific developments.

This project will result in the preparation of a comprehensive document which will
1. provide the relevant important terminology,
2. be a basic guide on stereochemical description of polymers to the scientific community,
3. highlight common misunderstandings of the different approaches used hitherto,
4. remove inconsistencies in recommendations which have been published at different times, and
5. where possible provide a concordance of formerly used terms and descriptors and classify these into preferred, acceptable and not acceptable.

July 2010 - project announcement published in Chem. Int. Jul-Aug, p. 20

• Moad, Graeme
• Hellwich, Karl-Heinz

• Duda, Andrzej
• Kahovec, Jaroslav
• Kitayama, Tatsuki
• Meille, Stefano
• Nakano, Tamaki
• Vert, Michel