Issue 36, 2015

Aqueous copper(0) mediated reversible deactivation radical polymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate

Abstract

Reversible deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP) of 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate in D2O with Cu(0) wire mediation and with two-step Cu(0) in situ mediation was investigated. The concentration of active species on the Cu(0) surface, which was influenced by Cu(0) type (wire or particle), polymer chain length, and activator and deactivator concentration, was the key factor in understanding the formation of insoluble gel with Cu(0) wire and/or a high molecular weight (MW) shoulder observed in the polymer molar mass distributions (MMDs). The influences of temperature, residual oxygen (dependent on the transfer procedure used to add reagents), and NaBr addition were also studied. The insights gained were used to produce P(HEA) with high molar mass [target chain length (TCL) = 400, 87% conversion, Đ = 1.16] using only ca. 250 ppm copper at room temperature, the first reported preparation of high MW P(HEA) with a low Đ using such a low copper catalyst concentration in a purely aqueous environment.

Graphical abstract: Aqueous copper(0) mediated reversible deactivation radical polymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 Jun 2015
Accepted
28 Jul 2015
First published
30 Jul 2015

Polym. Chem., 2015,6, 6509-6518

Aqueous copper(0) mediated reversible deactivation radical polymerization of 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate

M. Zhang, M. F. Cunningham and R. A. Hutchinson, Polym. Chem., 2015, 6, 6509 DOI: 10.1039/C5PY00921A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, 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 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