Abstract
Two novel and readily biodegradable ionic liquids were used as solvents in the successful reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT)-mediated radical polymerization of styrene. The polymerizations reached high conversions with slightly higher rates than that observed in toluene, and the molecular weight distributions were consistent with that of an ideal living radical polymerization. This represents a significant advance as previous attempts to conduct RAFT-mediated polymerizations of styrene in ionic liquids had failed. With a detailed kinetic analysis we found that the ratio of termination to propagation rate constants remained relatively constant over the conversion range, suggesting that trapped or protected radicals were not present in our systems.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1604 - 1609 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Macromolecules |
Volume | 42 |
Issue number | 5 |
Publication status | Published - 2009 |