Issue 14, 2023

Cu(0)-RDRP of acrylates using an alkyl iodide initiator

Abstract

In the vast majority of atom transfer radical polymerizations, alkyl bromides or alkyl chlorides are commonly employed as initiators, and minimal attention has been given to alkyl iodides. Herein, we report the room temperature Cu(0)-mediated reversible deactivation radical polymerization of acrylates utilizing alkyl iodide as an initiator. Kinetic experiments were conducted showing a linear dependence of Mn with conversion, good agreement between theoretical and experimental molecular weights, and low dispersity values (Đ ∼ 1.05), even at high monomer conversions. The high-end group fidelity of the iodide-terminated polymer was confirmed via MALDI-ToF-MS analysis and successful in situ chain extensions at near-quantitative conversions. Polymerization of methyl acrylate with various targeted degrees of polymerizations (DPn = 25–2400), resulted in the synthesis of well-defined polymers with low dispersities (Đ < 1.15), even at higher molecular weights (e.g. Mn = 200 000, Đ ∼ 1.13). The compatibility of the methodology with various solvents, including acetonitrile (MeCN), dimethylformamide (DMF), acetone, and isopropanol (IPA) as well as a range of acrylic monomers was also investigated yielding polymers with excellent control over the molar mass distributions. A series of block copolymers consisting of different block segments were also synthesized in one pot without any intermediate purification steps, thus highlighting the potential of an alkyl iodide initiator in a controlled polymerization.

Graphical abstract: Cu(0)-RDRP of acrylates using an alkyl iodide initiator

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
14 Dec 2022
Accepted
13 Mar 2023
First published
17 Mar 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Polym. Chem., 2023,14, 1639-1645

Cu(0)-RDRP of acrylates using an alkyl iodide initiator

K. Parkatzidis, L. de Haro Amez, N. P. Truong and A. Anastasaki, Polym. Chem., 2023, 14, 1639 DOI: 10.1039/D2PY01563C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements