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Revisiting Chain Transfer to Polymer and Branching in Controlled Radical Polymerization of Butyl Acrylate
Author(s) -
Reyes Yuri,
Asua José M.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201000375
Subject(s) - chain transfer , radical polymerization , branching (polymer chemistry) , reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer polymerization , polymer chemistry , polymerization , living free radical polymerization , radical , cobalt mediated radical polymerization , chemistry , polymer , photochemistry , monomer , butyl acrylate , kinetic chain length , acrylate , materials science , organic chemistry
Acrylic monomers undergo chain transfer to polymer during polymerization leading to branched and even gelled polymers. It has been experimentally demonstrated that the extent of branching is higher for conventional free radical polymerization than for controlled radical polymerization (ATRP, RAFT, NMP) and this has been qualitatively explained in terms of the differences in the concentrations of highly reactive short‐chain radicals between controlled and conventional radical polymerizations. Contrary to this explanation, in this work, it is quantitatively demonstrated that the short transient lifetime of the radicals, i.e., the time between activation and deactivation of the radical in controlled radical polymerization, is the cause for the low level of branching in these polymerizations.