Chemists Proceed in Perking Up Polymer Production

摘要

Many of the materials which make up the modern world are polymers, and most are manufactured by methods developed in industry many years ago. University researchers have shown relatively little interest in investigating ways to improve these processes. That is beginning to change, and is reflected in the current list of Hot Papers, five of which are'on the subject of polymerization catalysts. Four of these papers (#4, #6, #7 and #8) report on catalysts that produce "living" polymers, which were featured in the previous issue (see Science Watch, 9[3]:7, May/June 1998); these have, as yet, no industrial application. The fifth paper, however (#5), deals with polymerization catalysts that are trans-forming the manufacture of poly-olefins such as polyethylene and polypropylene.