High Temperature Initiator-Free RAFT Polymerization of Methyl Methacrylate in a Microwave Reactor
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Paulus, Renzo M.; Becer, C. Remzi; Hoogenboom, Richard; Schubert, Ulrich S.
- Abstract:
- The reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was investigated
under microwave irradiation. At first, a comparison was made between microwave and thermal heating for the RAFT
polymerization of MMA with azobis(isobutyronitrile) (AIBN) as initiator and 2-cyano-2-butyldithiobenzoate (CBDB)
as RAFT agent, revealing comparable polymerization kinetics indicating the absence of non-thermal microwave effects.
Second, the CBDB-mediated RAFT polymerization of MMA was investigated at high temperatures (120◦C, 150◦C, and
180◦C, respectively) in the absence of a radical initiator, showing a linear increase of the molar masses with conversion.
The polydispersity indices remained below 1.5 up to 25% MMA conversion at 120◦C and 150◦C, indicating a controlled
polymerization. This control over the polymerization was confirmed by the ability to control the molar masses by the
concentration of RAFT agent.
- Year:
- 2009
- Type of Publication:
- Article
- Journal:
- Australian Journal of Chemistry
- Volume:
- 62
- Pages:
- 254 - 259