Controlled/“Living” Radical Polymerization of Methyl Methacrylate Catalyzed by Cobalt Acetate

✍ Scribed by Zhong-Xi Huang; Yong-Ming Zhang; Hong Li; Yan-Gang Liu

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 169 KB
• Volume: 209
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1022-1352
• DOI: 10.1002/macp.200700562

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Using cobalt acetate as a catalyst, the controlled/“living” polymerization of MMA was carried out. PMMA with a predicted molecular weight and a low polydispersity $(\overline M _{\rm w} /\overline M _{\rm n} = 1.26)$ was obtained. Using the obtained PMMA as a macroinitiator, a chain extension reaction was carried out. This increased the molecular weight of PMMA from 23 600 to 36 100, in good agreement with the predicted value, and the polydispersity index became lower $(\overline M _{\rm w} /\overline M _{\rm n} = 1.22)$. This indicated the “living” character of the polymerization. Bulk polymerization of styrene catalyzed by cobalt acetate using the obtained polystyrene as a macroinitiator yielded well‐defined PS‐b‐PMMA.

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