Abstract
The individual stages in the development of the synthetic chemistry of polymers are examined in their historical aspect. The present state of the chemistry of macromolecular compounds and the prospects for its development in the future are discussed and the types and characteristics of monomers used in polymerisation and polycondensation are considered. The entire wide variety of known polymeric macromolecules arising in various syntheses of polymers is demonstrated. Attention is drawn to the fundamentally important fact that all reactions involving the synthesis of macromolecular compounds lead to the formation of heterounit polymers, and the necessity to take into account the heterounit nature of polymers when problems of the dependence of their properties on their structure are considered is pointed out. Certain problems arising in modern technology and involving tasks soluble by synthetic methods are described and questions concerning the synthesis of polymers with specific properties are considered in relation to a number of examples. The present level of development of the syntheses of polymers by polymerisation and polycondensation methods and by the modification of existing polymers is described. The varieties of polymerisation and polycondensation processes and of the modification of existing polymers are examined (mainly in relation to new reactions, primarily those which lead to the formation of polymers of a new type). The increasing tendency towards the synthesis of polymers with specific properties, which is apparent at the present time, is emphasised.
The bibliography includes 122 references.