The Vinyl Homopolymerization of Norbornene

Abstract

A full literature and patent account (about 100 references) is given on work describing vinyl polymerization to form the homopolymer poly(norbornene). The interest in vinyl-poly(norbornene) is driven by its dielectric and mechanical properties for the technical application as an interlevel dielectric in microelectronics applications. For comparison, the norbornene/olefin copolymerization is discussed also. The metal catalysts are introduced and important polymer product properties are emphasized. The six possible isomers for stereoregular poly(norbornene) are presented.