The polymerization of (9-carbazolyl)methylthiirane in the presence of cyclic oligo(potassium glycidoxide) as the macroinitiator activated 18-crown-6 leads to polythioether with the molecular masses relatively near to the calculated ones. This polythioether dispersed in a commercially available transparent polymer gives a new blue photoluminescent material.

Alkalides are salts containing alkali metal anions and complexed metal cations. These unusual species discovered by Dye ( Dye, J. L.; Andrews, C. W.; Mathews, S. E. J. Phys. Chem., 1975, 79, 3065) are strong reductants of many organic and inorganic compounds. These reactions occur rapidly under mild homogeneous conditions. In this paper we discuss new data concerning the application of potassium potassides selected from the group of alkalides to polymerization processes. Their new and corrected mechanisms for some vinyl and oxacyclic monomers are presented.

Cyclic oligo(potassium glycidoxide) activated 18-crown-6 is applied as a macroinitiator for the polymerization of propylene oxide, 1-butylene oxide and styrene oxide. This polymerization results in new star-shaped polyethers with a cyclic core. The size of the core and the number of its arms depends on the concentration of crown ether used for preparation of the macroinitiator.

The objective of this review is to outline the photochemical, electrochemical, and enzymatic methods that are currently used for ether-bond cleavage. Key results have been extracted from publications covering the past 15 years of research activity in this field.