Plenary Lecture
A Journey into Ligands Complexes Catalysts and Polymers

The possible applications of polymeric materials are derived from their physical properties, derived from their microstructural regularity, derived from the catalysts employed for their synthesis, derived from the metal complexes leading to these catalysts, derived from the choice of metals, the design of the ligands, and the deciphering of their wrapping tendencies.

Over the past two decades, our group has introduced various families of multidentate ligands, well-defined metal complexes, and polymerization catalysts, mostly for the stereoselective polymerization of alpha-olefins, and for the ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters.

In this presentation we will try to deliver some flavor of catalyst design and polymer synthesis by describing several motifs of our work, including: the design of polydentate ligands, “chirality-at-the-metal”, new polymeric microstructures, polymeryl exchange between two active catalysts, and the application of truly-living polymerization catalysts for the synthesis of accurate stereo-block-copolymers.