Living radical and cationic polymerizations in water and organic media

This lecture will focus two living polymerizations that can be carried out in water as well as in organic media. The first one is transition metal-catalyzed living radical polymerization, for which Ru(II) and other transition metals play a critical role to control the process; for aqueous systems, Ru(II) and Fe(II) half metallocene complexes are useful. The second is cationic polymerization with water-tolerant Lewis acids as catalysts, including rare earth triflates and boron trifluoride for selected monomers. Discussion will be directed to the design of initiating systems, search of versatile catalysts, and precision synthesis of new polymers.