title: Polymers with Very Low Polydispersities from Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization
abstract: A radical polymerization process that yields well-defined polymers normally obtained only through anionic polymerizations is reported. Atom transfer radical polymerizations of styrene were conducted with several solubilizing ligands for the copper(I) halides: 4,4'-di-tert-butyl, 4,4'-di-n-heptyl, and 4,4'-di-(5-nonyl)-2,2'-dipyridyl. The resulting polymerizations have all of the characteristics of a living polymerization and displayed linear semilogarithmic kinetic plots, a linear correlation between the number-average molecular weight and the monomer conversion, and low polydispersities (ratio of the weight-average to number-average molecular weights of 1.04 to 1.05). Similar results were obtained for the polymerization of acrylates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Carnegie Mellon University, 4400 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Patten
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Abernathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matyjaszewski