Synthetic approaches to new polymers

A plenary lecture should be an introduction into the main topic of the symposium and a review about the state of art. Therefore, in the first part of this presentation different possibilities for the preparation of new polymers are briefly discussed from a chemical point of view. Some selected examples from the literature show how methods of organic chemistry can be utilized for polymer science: new catalytic systems, new monomers, modification of polymers, new poly-reactions. In the second part, several polyelectrolytes are described: polymers with sec., tert. and quart. N-atoms in the main chain, block copolymers and block polyampholytes. The third part deals with the problems of rod-like macromolecules for instance oligo- and poly(p-phenylene)s, poly(p-phenyleneethynylene)s, aromatic polyimides and a new spiroionene.