Thomas G Ribelli, Dominik Konkolewicz, Xiangcheng Pan
Sep 10, 2014
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Quality indicators
Journal
Macromolecules
Abstract
With the recent interest in photochemically mediated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), an interesting question arises: how significant are the photochemical processes in ATRP reactions that are supposed to be chemically controlled, such as initiators for continuous activator regeneration (ICAR) ATRP? A comparison of the rates of polymerization under ICAR ATRP conditions under ambient lighting and in the dark indicates negligible difference in the polymerization rate, under the conditions [MA]:[EBiB]:[TPMA*2]:[CuBr2]:[AIBN] = 300:1:0.12:0.03:0.2 in anisole 50% (v/v) at 60 °C, where TPMA*2 is 1-(4-methoxy-3,5-dimethylpyridin-2-yl)-N-((4-methoxy-3,5-dimethylpyridin-2-yl)methyl)-N-(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)methanamine. This indicates that under typical ICAR conditions activator regeneration is almost exclusively due to the chemical decomposition of AIBN, not ambient lighting. To further investigate the effect of light on the activator regeneration, experiments were performed combining ICAR and photochemi...