Atom transfer radical polymerization parameters

Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) was selected as an exemplary CRP technique to systematically study the kinetics and gelation behavior during the concurrent copolymerization of monovinyl monomers and divinyl cross-linkers (Scheme 2). The effect of different parameters on the experimental gelation was studied, including the initial molar ratio of cross-linker to initiator, the concentrations of reagents, the reactivity of vinyl groups present in the cross-linker, the efficiency of initiation, and the polydispersity of primary chains. Experimental gel points based on the conversions of monomer and/or cross-linker at the moment of gelation, were determined and compared with each other in order to understand the influence of each parameter on the experimental gel points. 

Hawker et al. 2001 Hawker and Wooley 2005). Recent developments in living radical polymerization allow the preparation of structurally well-defined block copolymers with low polydispersity. These polymerization methods include atom transfer free radical polymerization (Coessens et al. 2001), nitroxide-mediated polymerization (Hawker et al. 2001), and reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (Chiefari et al. 1998). In addition to their ease of use, these approaches are generally more tolerant of various functionalities than anionic polymerization. However, direct polymerization of functional monomers is still problematic because of changes in the polymerization parameters upon monomer modification. As an alternative, functionalities can be incorporated into well-defined polymer backbones after polymerization by coupling a side chain modifier with tethered reactive sites (Shenhar et al. 2004 Carroll et al. 2005 Malkoch et al. 2005). The modification step requires a clean (i.e., free from side products) and quantitative reaction so that each site has the desired chemical structures. Otherwise it affords poor reproducibility of performance between different batches. 

Paramagnetic centers containing a sulfur atom in different oxidation states, (=Si-0)3Si-0-S = O, (=Si-0)3Si-0-S 02, (=Si-0)3Si-0-S02-0, and (=Si-0)3Si-0-S02-0-0, were obtained in Ref. [118]. Their radio-spectroscopic parameters were determined, and the mechanism of free radical oxidation of S02 molecules in this system was established. The mechanism of the initial steps of free radical polymerization and copolymerization of hydrogen- and fluorine-substituted unsaturated hydrocarbons was studied in Ref. [117]. The pathways were found and the kinetic parameters were determined for reactions of intramolecular H(D) atom transfer between r (CH3, CD3, CH2-CH3) and r (CH2-CH2, CD2-CD2), in the structure of (=Si-0)2Si(r)(rI) [120]. 

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