Macromolecular engineering via polyhomologation

Polyhomologation of ylide monomers by organoboron initiators is a powerful and versatile C1 polymerization method that provides access to linear polyolefins (polymethylenes) that share structural and compositional similarity with polyethylene. Oxidative hydrolysis of polyolefins produced via organoborane-initiated polyhomologation affords hydroxyl chain end functional polymers, which enable further functionalization, and provide access to unprecedented polyolefin-based polymer architectures. This perspective briefly summarizes the important features of polyhomologation, highlights recent exciting developments and points out challenges and directions for future research.