The addition of small amounts of xanthate can turn conventional RAFT polymerizations into rapid photo-activated reactions with high livingness, oxygen tolerance and versatility enabling straightforward multiblock synthesis or well plate screening.
This study employs acid in RAFT polymerization to enhance multiblock copolymer synthesis, achieving near-quantitative monomer conversion, while suppressing low molecular weight tailing, and maintaining dispersity constant.
Emulsion polymerization mediated by RAFT confers a plenty of advantages for the synthesis of multiblock copolymers, including but not limited to control over particle morphology, molecular weight, livingness, composition, and time.
The influence of irradiation conditions on the livingness in xanthate supported photo-iniferter RAFT polymerization is investigated. Multiblock and diblock systems are used to assess chain extension in batch and flow.
This review summarizes the development, progress, applications, and future challenges of photocontrolled reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization, which has attracted considerable attention in the past several years.