Copolymerisation of Olefins and Polar Monomers

Polyolefin is the largest commercial polymer material in annual production, but its non-polar nature still limits its application in some important fields. Therefore, polar functional groups are introduced into polyolefin materials for functionalisation, which has been a topic of great industrial interest. Copolymerisation of olefins and polar monomers is the most straightforward method to solve this problem, but the presence of polar functional groups places high demands on the Lewis-acidic active centre of olefin polymerisation catalysts, the preparation of functionalised polyolefin by copolymerisation has thus also aroused great academic interest. This chapter summarises the copolymerisation reactions of olefins and polar monomers promoted by coordination polymerisation catalysts in the past few decades based on various polar monomers. The properties and applicable scopes of copolymers are briefly discussed before presenting existing obstacles in catalysis and evaluating the development and state-of-the-art of applicable catalysts for each monomer.