A telechelic polymer or oligomer is a prepolymer capable of entering into further polymerization or other reactions through its reactive end-groups. It can be used for example to synthesize block copolymers.
Synthesis
Telechelic polymers can be synthesized by different polymerization mechanisms. From vinyl monomers, among synthetic strategies are controlled radical polymerization and anionic polymerization. In the case of olefins, that is difficult to be functionalized, recent advances in insertion polymerization and post-polymerization can be used to produce telechelic polyolefins. == Application ==
Application
Telechelic polymers are important in the preparation of block copolymers acting as building blocks for the structural design of these copolymers. Particularly, ABA triblock copolymers has received much industrial interest for development of thermoplastic elastomers. == References ==