It is clear that a growing poly-Nb surface-bound chain can be quenched with a vinyl Fc/Fc + on pCOT occurs at 0.417V, and on pNb at 0.493V. species to yield an end-functionalized chain. Unfortunately, our efforts to use the same conditions to polymerize cyclooctatetraene to yield surface-initiated COT-derived polyacetylene (pCOT, Scheme 2) were not very successful. This technique, as well as one previously reported by Lee et al., gave polymer films of only about 2 nm thickness by ellipsometry in our hands. Another report also found COT to polymerize slowly and give little material on the surface. While these protocols do yield surface-grafted pCOT, if our goal is to prepare end-functionalizable films which retain active catalyst ends, the technique certainly needs further optimization.