The design and synthesis of substituted polyacetylenes are motivated by the development of new materials that display interesting physical and chemical properties.Attachment of functional pendants to the polyacetylene backbone endows such polymers with various unique properties

such as optical nonlinearity

liquid crystallinity

light emission

helical chirality

high gas permeability

and so forth.As an important category of separation membrane materials

these amorphous

highly stiff

glassy polymers are characterized by high gas permeability and high vapor/gas selectivity

which is strikingly different from conventional glassy polymers.Much work is being progressed in the aspects of gas separation

natural gas purification

and enantioselective permeation of substituted polyacetylenes. This review concerns polymerization catalysts and polymer reaction for the synthesis of substituted polyacetylenes

especially separation properties of the highly permeable polyacetylenes.