The potential use of conjugated polymers in device applications is often limited by their less than optimal physicochem. properties. This work describes an efficient protocol to end-cap conjugated polymers synthesized via palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling polymns. with norbornene groups. Specifically, the hydroarylation of norbornadiene is shown to be a high-yielding end-capping method. These strained bicyclic alkenyl end groups can be transformed into macroinitiators via ring-opening metathesis polymn. and can polymerize other strained monomers, such as norbornene, yielding elastomeric triblock copolymers. [on SciFinder(R)]