Polymers containing metal atoms are attracting increasing attention as they offer access to new functional macromolecular and supramolecular materials with novel properties. Our group has developed ring-opening polymerization routes to metallopolymers such as polymetallocenes with high molecular weights which allows easy processing.

Controlled architectures (e.g. block copolymers) are available through living polymerization processes, including a remarkable recently developed photocontrolled method. This talk will focus on recent efforts to use these metallopolymers to create, for example, photonic devices, and self-assembled supramolecular structures, which can be used in nanolithographic applications and catalysis.

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Rider and I. Manners: Nature Materials 2006, 5, 467.

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4. Arsenault, A.; Puzzo, D. Manners, I. Ozin, G.A. Nature Photonics 2007, 1, 468.