ABSTRACT
Cationic polymerization is applicable to vinyl monomers having electronrich double bond and propagation reactions that take place by electrophilic addition of the monomers to the active cationic sites. Since cationic species are very reactive, conventional cationic polymerization reactions involve chain termination, chain transfer, and other chain-breaking reactions which destroy propagating cations. Therefore, it is difficult to prepare functional polymers, also known as chain-end functional polymers (polymers with functional groups selectively placed at the chain end(s)) by traditional cationic polymerization.
