RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE USE OF POLYMERS AS REACTANTS IN ORGANIC REACTIONS

In a review article [Accounts Chem. Res., 2, 217 (1969)] is a summation of our work up to 1968. In this review we summarized the activity of polyvinylimidazole and copolymers in esterolytic reactions. We explained the increased reactivity of these polymeric reactants in terms of cooperative effects and electrostatic factors. In 1967, we blundered into the extremely interesting discovery that long-chain esters provided us with enormous acceleration of rates at room temperature and we have attributed this in “general” terminology to apolar bonding as a third factor to understand the high reactivity of these synthetic macromolecules. Reference 1 describes our recent published work. We are heavily emphasizing the apolar bonding concept. Related work which conceptually can be regarded as similar to our own discovery was carried out by the group of Professor Irving M. Klotz at Northwestern (2), the group of Professor Kabanov at the University of Moscow (3), and the group of Professor Kunitake (4).