Poly(vinyl pyridine)s: A Versatile Polymer in Catalysis

The PVP and its derivatives have been broadly applied in polymers, organic syntheses, and catalysis processes. The crosslinked PVP is a well-known polymer support for numerous reagents and catalysts. Cross-linked PVPs are commercially available polymers and have attracted much attention over the past due to their interesting properties such as the facile functionalization, high accessibility of functional groups, being nonhygroscopic, easy to prepare, easy filtration, and swelling in many organic solvents. A brief explanation of the reported applications of PVPs in different fields followed by the discussion on the implementation of methodologies for catalytic efficiency of PVP-based reagents in the organic synthesis is included. The aim is to summarize the literature under a few catalytic categories and to present each as a short scheme involving reaction conditions. In the text, discussions on the synthesis and the structural determination of some typical polymeric reagents are presented, and the mechanisms of some organic reactions are given. Where appropriate, advantages of reagents in comparison with the previous reports are presented. This review does not include patent literature.