Atom transfer radical polymerization of styrene initiated by the novel initiator 2-bromo-2-nitropropane

Abstract

Heterogeneous atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of styrene initiated by 2-bromo-2-nitropropane in bulk was carried out with CuCl/2,2′-bipyridine as the catalyst. The kinetics was first order in monomer and the number-average molecular weight of the polymer increased linearly with monomer conversion, indicating the 'living'/controlled nature of the polymerization. However, the number-average molecular weight was usually higher than the theoretical one. The nitro group might react with the Cu complex, resulting in insufficient initiation. The amount of catalyst has no effect on the controllability of this catalyst system for the ATRP of styrene. The presence of a halide end group in the obtained polymer was confirmed by both 1H NMR and chain-extension reaction.