Anionic polymerization of ethyl acrylate initiated by tetrabutylammonium azide: direct synthesis of end-clickable polyacrylate

Abstract

Tetrabutylammonium azide was found to initiate the anionic polymerization of ethyl acrylate (EA) in the presence of alkylaluminum bisphenoxides in toluene to afford azide-end polymers with narrow molecular weight distributions in quantitative yields. The resulting polymers showed high enough reactivity for the copper-catalyzed azide–alkyne cycloaddition.