Chapter 3: Step-growth Polymerization Check Access

Step-growth polymerization is a type of polymerization in which bifunctional or multifunctional monomers react successively to form dimers, then trimers, longer oligomers and eventually long chain polymers. The mechanism boasts of synthesis of several naturally occurring and some synthetic polymers like polyesters, polyamides, polyurethanes etc. This chapter discusses the development of the microwave-assisted step-growth polymerization technique. MW-assisted step-growth polymerizations such as esterification, amidation, imidation and metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions are dealt with in detail.