Despite the RAFT process being well-established, little attention has been given to RAFT polymerizations in inverse microemulsion systems; two manuscripts have been published to date. In this research, we report the RAFT inverse microemulsion polymerization of 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA). The inverse microemulsion system was first optimized by generating a pseudo-three-component phase diagram using cyclohexane as oil phase, a non-ionic surfactant, and an aqueous phase containing DMAEMA.The polymerization reactions were conducted at a fixed temperature while varying the CTA content, the radical source, and the pH of the aqueous phase. Based on our initial results, monomer partitioning between the dispersed aqueous phase and the continuous oil phase of the inverse microemulsion plays an important role on the polymerization kinetics, droplet/particle size, and polymer properties. Depending on the monomer/CTA ratio, only partial control over molecular weight (Mn) and molecular weight distributions is obtained. This suggests that the RAFT mechanism in inverse microemulsion needs further investigation.  A. B. Lowe and C.L McCormick, Progress in Polymer Science, 2007, 32, 283-351.A. Sogabe and C. L. McCormick, Macromolecules, 2009, 42, 5043-5052.A. Sogabe, J. D. Flores and C. L. McCormick, Macromolecules, 2010, 43, 6599-6607.

Advances in RAFT inverse microemulsion polymerization

248th National Meeting (2014)

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