RAFTing down under: Tales of missing radicals, fancy architectures, and mysterious holes

This highlight describes recent developments in reversible addition-fragmentation transfer (RAFT) polymerization. Succinct coverage of the RAFT mechanism is supplemented by details of synthetic methodologies for making a wide range of architectures ranging from stars to combs, microgels, and blocks. In addition, RAFT reactions in different media such as emulsion and ionic liquids receive attention. Finally, a specific example of a novel material design is briefly introduced, whereas polymers prepared via RAFT are adopted for microporous/honeycomb membrane design. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.