Project Details:
Terminology for Chain Polymerization
| Project No.: | 2010-007-1-400 |
| Start date: | 2010-05-01 |
| End date: | 0000-00-00 |
| Division: | Polymer Division |
To propose and disseminate throughout the scientific community authoritative guidelines for describing chain polymerization which are consistent with current IUPAC documents.
During the last decades, a sometimes conflicting and contradictory terminology for describing chain polymerization processes has developed. IUPAC has recently addressed this problem for the case of radical polymerizations which derive some of the characteristics of living polymerization from the presence of a reversible deactivation mechanism (Pure Appl. Chem. 2010, Vol. 82, No. 2, pp. 483-491, doi:10.1351/PAC-REP-08-04-03). However, the issues are more pervasive and extend beyond the confines of radical polymerization, such that there is now an evident need to address the development of an even wider terminology that is being applied across all polymerization processes, often leading to conflicts of understanding at the boundaries of chain polymerization, addition polymerization and condensation polymerization.
This project will undertake to review current terminology for chain polymerization processes in the light of current IUPAC recommendations and recent developments in what continues to be a very rapidly developing field.
This project will result in the preparation of a comprehensive document which will:
- provide definitions of the relevant important terminology;
- be a basic guide to terminology of mechanisms of chain polymerization processes;
- highlight common misunderstandings evident in the prior literature;
- remove inconsistencies in recommendations which have been published at different times;
- where possible provide a concordance of formerly used terms and descriptors and classify these either as preferred, acceptable or not acceptable.
July 2010 - project announcement published in Chem. Int. Jul-Aug, p. 24