Cyclic polymers: Methods and strategies

Cyclic polymers have different physical properties compared to their linear counterparts of the same molecular weight. These different properties could have potential impact in the production of new and exciting polymer products. For industry to commercialize such materials, cyclic polymers need to be made on large scales, have controlled molecular weight distributions, and have versatile chemical composition. This highlight article describes many of the synthetic methods and strategies for obtaining highly pure cyclic polymers, and presents kinetic attributes for some of the processes. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012 Cyclic polymers have different physical properties compared to their linear counterparts of the same molecular weight. These different properties could have potential impact in the production of new and exciting polymer products. For industry to commercialize such materials, cyclic polymers need to be made on large scales, have controlled molecular weight distributions, and have versatile chemical composition. This highlight article describes many of the synthetic methods and strategies for obtaining highly pure cyclic polymers, and presents kinetic attributes for some of the processes.