Stille Polycondensation: A Versatile Synthetic Approach to Functional Polymers

The conjugated polymer is a large category of functional materials that benefits the modern society with more and more important applications in cutting edge technologies. Among the various synthetic methods to conjugated polymers, Stille polycondensation is a very versatile one for its efficiency, mild reaction conditions and the tolerance to a wide scope of functional groups. This chapter summarizes many aspects of the Stille polycondensation: (1) the history and the investigation into the mechanism and reaction conditions; (2) the application in preparing numerous kinds of functional materials, including non-linear optical polymers, organic photovoltaic polymers, organic field effect transistor polymers, organic light-emitting diode polymers, bio and chemical sensors and so on; (3) the new development and the future challenges. This chapter can serve as a good guidance to the study of Stille polycondensation and its application in preparing functional polymers.