chlorinated hydrocarbons ethers aliphatic hydrocarbons or mixtures thereof preferred solvents include toluene methylene chloride tetrahydrofuran methyl t butyl ether isopar gasoline and mixtures thereof reaction temperatures are in the range of about 25 u00b0 c to about 300 u00b0 c the total polymerization reaction time will generally although again not necessarily be in the range of about 1 to 24 hours in some embodiments the reactions are carried out by first combining the monomer with the nucleophilic reagent and the catalyst in a solvent after allowing sufficient time for the monomer to react with the nucleophilic reagent to form a prepolymer the reaction conditions are changed to encourage polymerization of the prepolymer for example elevated temperature and or reduced pressure may be applied in order to force the condensation of prepolymer molecules in some embodiments the temperature of the reaction after formation of the prepolymer is raised to between 100 u00b0 c and 200 u00b0 c or greater than about 150 u00b0 c or greater than about 170 u00b0 c the amount of time required to form the prepolymer from the monomer and the nucleophilic reagent will vary depending upon the reactants and conditions but may be estimated or determined by the usual analytical methods the temperature during formation of the prepolymer may be room temperature or higher for example between 30 u00b0 c and 100 u00b0 c the polymerization product from reactions according to the invention contains product polymer and the guanidine containing catalyst which may be removed from the polymer product in the usual manner because the polymerization catalysts disclosed herein do not contain metals the methods of the disclosure allow for the polymerization of a monomer starting material to provide a polymerization product that is substantially free of.