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Acceleration and Selective Monomer Addition during Aqueous RAFT Copolymerization of Ionic Monomers at 25 °C
Author(s) -
Li Guangxiang,
Xu Na,
Yu Qiuping,
Lu Xinhua,
Chen Hong,
Cai Yuanli
Publication year - 2014
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.201400153
Subject(s) - monomer , copolymer , polymer chemistry , chain transfer , aqueous solution , ionic bonding , polyelectrolyte , raft , polymer , chemistry , polymerization , ionic strength , radical polymerization , materials science , ion , organic chemistry
An acceleration effect and selective monomer addition during RAFT copolymerization of the oppositely‐charged ionic monomers in dilute aqueous solution at 25 °C are reported. The reaction is conducted using a non‐ionic water‐soluble polymer as a macromolecular chain transfer agent under visible light irradiation. A fast iterative polymerization can be induced, even in dilute solution, by the favorable ionic interactions and in situ self‐assembly of zwitterionic growing chains. Selelctive monomer addition is achieved in the statistical copolymerization due to the ion‐pairing of the oppositely‐charged monomers, such as precisely the same reaction rates at a 1:1 of monomer ratio, otherwise a faster reaction of the minor monomer component over the major one. These behaviors open up an avenue towards the rapid synthesis of sequence‐controlled zwitterionic polyelectrolytes that can satisfy the demands of emerging biological applications.