Perfect retention of polymer chain-end functionality is crucial for the synthesis of polymers with complex topologies and architectures such as block copolymer, macrocycles and dendritic macromolecules via the TERMINI concept or click chemistry. Single-electron transfer living radical polymerization (SET-LRP) catalyzed by Cu(0) provides a robust and versatile method for the ultrafast synthesis of vinyl polymers at room temperature. Here we will report reaction conditions for the SET-LRP of methyl acrylate (MA) initiated by bis(2-bromopropionyl)-ethane (BPE) in dimethyl sulfoxide to be carried to 100% monomer conversion with complete absence of bimolecular termination. The absence of termination was demonstrated by a combination of techniques including 1H NMR before and after functionalization of the bromine chain-end, MALDI-TOF and reinitiation experiments.

Synthesis of perfectly bifunctional poly(methyl acrylate) via Cu(0)-catalyzed single-electron transfer living radical polymerization

244th National Meeting (2012)

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