Novel syntheses of polymers with well-defined structures were developed on the basis of the selective reactions of thiiranes and oxiranes with carboxylic esters or active chlorides using quaternary onium salts. (1) A new type of reactive polymers with pendant chloromethyl groups was synthesized by polyaddition of difunctional thiiranes or oxiranes with various organic dichlorides. (2) Polysulfides with controlled molecular weight and narrow molecular weight distribution were synthesized by ring-opening polymerization of thiiranes with carboxylic acid derivatives as initiators and quaternary onium salts as catalysts, in which acyl-groups transfer to the propagating center in each propagation step. The ring-opening polymerization of thiiranes has an advantage in the synthesis of specific shaped polymers such as star polymers and cyclic polymers. (3) Novel A-B type sequence-ordered copolymers were synthesized by alternating ring-opening polymerization of oxiranes withthiobutyrolactone, or of oxetane with cyclic carboxylic anhydrides. (4) Sequence-ordered polymers were successfully synthesized on the basis of a new concept-''transformation of polymer backbones'' using insertion of thiiranes and oxiranes into poly(S-thioester)s in the aforementioned reaction systems. The reaction mechanism and advantages of the reaction systems are also discussed.KEY WORDS: Ring-opening Reaction / Thiirane / Oxirane / Quaternary Onium Salts / Acyl Transfer / Sequence-ordered Polymers / Addition reactions of cyclic compounds such as cyclic ethers with certain reagents are useful synthetic methods for preparing polymeric materials. The addition reactions of oxiranes (epoxy) compounds have been used for syntheses of functional polymers from reactive polymers containing pendant oxirane groups.1 Epoxy resins with multiple oxirane groups are widely utilized with certain curing reagents to obtain thermal cured materials.2 These polymer syntheses are based on the addition reaction of oxiranes with such reagents as amines, carboxylic acids, etc. In general, the reactions provide mixtures of -addition and -addition products (mixtures of regio-isomers).3 Regioselective ring-opening reactions of oxiranes are important research subjects in synthetic organic chemistry, 4 but it has been thought that the reactions of oxiranes with the reagents mentioned are not suitable for precise syntheses of polymers with well-defined structures.Recently, we have developed synthetic methods for functional polymers and chemical modification of polymers based on the regioselective ring-opening reactions of oxiranes with carboxylic esters catalyzed by quaternary onium salts. 5 In a series of studies on ring-opening reaction of cyclic compounds with several reagents; we found novel regioselective reactions of thiiranes or oxiranes to be useful for syntheses of polymers with well-defined structures.A significant advantage of the addition reactions of thiiranes or oxiranes with the reagents is the selective formation ofaddition products without ring-opening polymeriza...