Reactive polymers: Design considerations, novel preparations and selected applications in organic chemistry

Crosslinked reactive polymers with novel structures have been prepared from the corresponding monomers or by newly developed chemical modification reactions. These include the preparation of polymers with two or three carbon spacer groups between backbone and functionality, the first preparation of a Grignard reagent on an insoluble polymer, and some new copper mediated chemical modification reactions resulting in C-C bond formation. Novel applications of these polymers in asymmetric syntheses, regenerable polymeric protecting groups, supernucleophilic catalysts, polymeric separation media for HPLC, as well as aids in the determination of reaction mechanisms, have been investigated. Microenvironment effects within the polymer beads are shown to be important when considering the use of an insoluble reactive polymer.