Over the past 80 years the field of polymer and materials science has evolved dramatically. Cutting edge applications of synthetic polymers have moved on from tires and plastic bags to materials with uses in electronics and biomedicine. With the introduction of metal centers, a Pandora’s Box of fascinating new materials with potentially useful properties has been opened.

Stephanie and Ulrich Schubert, together with Ian Manners and George Newkome assembled a great collection of articles displaying the diversity of this timely research area. Contributions to this issue come from contributions from researchers in the USA, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Japan, China, India, and Spain. Utilitarian properties of the investigated polymers range from organic batteries, and photocatalysis to molecular self-assembly and cellular imaging.

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Markus Gallei and co-workers describe a very promising strategy for the preparation of poly(ferrocenylsilane) immobilized on the surface of cross-linked polystyrene (PS) nanoparticles.

Jean-Francois Gohy and his group present their results on metallo-supramolecular triblock copolymers showing multi-responsiveness and tunable properties.

Ikuyoshi Tomita an co-workers developed a new synthetic approach to fluorene-containing pi-conjugated polymers by reactions of a precursor polymer having both the titanacyclopentadiene and fluorene units.