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Well‐Defined High Molecular Weight Polystyrene with High Rates and High Livingness Synthesized via Two‐Stage RAFT Emulsion Polymerization
Author(s) -
Yan Kun,
Gao Xiang,
Luo Yingwu
Publication year - 2015
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.201500052
Subject(s) - chain transfer , dispersity , radical polymerization , reversible addition−fragmentation chain transfer polymerization , polymerization , monomer , polymer chemistry , emulsion polymerization , living free radical polymerization , polystyrene , raft , living polymerization , chemistry , bulk polymerization , kinetic chain length , polymer , precipitation polymerization , materials science , organic chemistry
A highly living polymer with over 100 kg mol −1 molecular weight is very difficult to achieve by controlled radical polymerization since the unavoidable side reactions of irreversible radical termination and radical chain transfer to monomer reaction become significant. It is reported that over 500 kg mol −1 polystyrene with high livingness and low dispersity could be synthesized by a facile two‐stage reversible addition–fragmentation transfer emulsion polymerization. The monomer conversion reaches 90% within 10 h. High livingness of the product is ascribed to the extremely low initiator concentration and the chain transfer constant for monomer unexpectedly much lower than the well‐accepted values in the conventional radical polymerization. The two‐stage monomer feeding policy much decreases the dispersity of the product.