Linear Oligocatenanes and Catenane Dendrimers: Synthesis and Determination of the Effect of Structural Concatenation on Polymer Properties Michael F. Mayer Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409-1061 We are near to completion of a new method to access polyrotaxanes – a class of compounds that features macrocycles threaded along an acyclic polymer backbone and which are held onto the chain by bulky “stopper” groups at the chain termini. The initiation process simultaneously transfers a bulky stopper group to the end of the newly formed polymer chain. After the monomer is consumed, a chain transfer agent is added (step 2) to convert the growing end of the chain into another bulky stopper. At the same time, the catalytic chain end is transferred off the polymer chain and converted to an inactive and easily separable compound. In a two step “one-pot reaction”, we are working to initiate (step 1) a ring-opening metathesis polymerization of a monomeric compound that consists of two interlocked macrocycles, i.e. a [2]catenane.