Macromolecules of controlled architecture

The recent renaissance in polymer chemistry has resulted in the development of a wide variety of new living polymerisation procedures and the adoption of many synthetic concepts and strategies from organic chemistry, effectively blurring the distinction between organic chemistry and polymer chemistry. A central theme in all of this recent work is the desire to accurately control polymeric structure and functionality to a degree that has previously been solely the domain of natural systems. This has allowed researchers to synthesise a wide range of advanced macromolecular targets with control over shape, size and functional group placement that could not be achieved using traditional procedures and heralds a new era in synthetic polymer chemistry. The scope of this feature article is to provide an insight into the structural diversity that can be accomplished with these recently developed techniques, what challenges still exist and how these advances can impact other related fields in polymer physics and materials science.