Discovery of Syndiotactic Polystyrene: Its Synthesis and Impact

This Editorial discusses two seminal Macromolecules publications by Ishihara et al. concerning the synthesis of syndiotactic polystyrene. In a 1986 communication ( Macromolecules 1986, 19, 2464), the first preparation of this semicrystalline polymer was reported. A 1988 full paper ( Macromolecules 1988, 21, 3356) described the enabling polymerization catalyst system, based on methylaluminoxane-activated half-metallocene titanium complexes. These two highly cited publications inspired a large body of research concerning the synthesis, structure, properties, and applications of this new polymer.