Controlled/living radical patents

Krzysztof Matyjaszewski received his PhD degree in 1976 from the Polish Academy of Sciences under Prof S. Penczek. Since 1985 he has been at Carnegie Mellon University where he is currently ). C. Warner University Professor of Natural Sciences and director of Center for Maaomolecular Engineering. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is the editor of Progress in Polymer Science and Central European Journal of Chemistry. He has coedited 14 books and coauthored more than 70 book chapters and 700 peer-reviewed publications he holds 41 US and more than 120 international patents. His papers have been cited more than 50000 times. His research interests include controlled/living radical polymerization, catalysis, environmental chemistry, and advanced materials for optoelectronic and biomedical applications. 

During the last fifteen years an explosive increase has been observed in the number of publications on CRP, including a dramatic increase in the nrrmber of patent applications and several symposia devoted partially, or entirely, to CRP." " Figure 1 illustrates resrrlts of a recent SciFinder Scholar search using the following terms controlled radicalpolymn or living radical polymn... 

A bewildering array of names are used to describe the various controlled/living radial polymerization techniques currently in use. These include stable free radical polymerization (SFRP) [35-38], nitroxide mediated polymerization (NMP) [39], atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) [40-42 ] and degenerate transfer processes (DT) which include radical addition-fragmentation transfer (RAFT) [43, 44] and catalyst chain transfer (CCT). These techniques have been used to polymerize many monomers, including styrene (both linear and star polymers) acrylates, dienes, acrylamides, methacrylates, and ethylene oxide. Research activity in this field is currently expanding at a very high rate, as is indicated by the many papers published and patents issued. 

Nitroxide-Mediated Controlled Radical Polymerization (NMCRP) was first discovered by Solomon et al., who patented their discovery in 1985 [205]. This opened up new pathways in the field of free-radical polymerization. Polymer architectures, which were the domain of the anionic polymer chemist, became accessible to the free-radical polymer chemist. However, it was not until the work of Georges et al. [206] was published in 1993, that the world of polymer chemistry became aware of the possibihties of this new class of free-radical polymerization. This was the beginning of what is today one of the leading topics in free-radical polymer chemistry Controlled or Living Free Radical Polymerization. This initiated the search for new Controlled or Living Free Radical Polymerization techniques, and soon afterwards other methods (which will be discussed later) were developed. 

Durairaj Baskaran performed doctoral studies at the National Chemical Laboratory, India, and University of Mainz Germany, working jointly with Dr. S. Sivaram and Prof. Axel H. E. Muller. After his PhD (University of Pune, India, 1996), he worked as a senior scientist at the National Chemical Laboratory for several years before joining the University of Tetmessee. His research interests are in the areas of living anionic polymerization and controlled radical polymerization focusing on synthesis and characterization of architecturally controlled polymers, functionalization of carbon nanotubes, nanocomposites, and polymers for energy applications. He has published over 70 research articles and several patents and also coedit i a book. 

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