Controlled/living photopolymerization of methyl methacrylate in miniemulsion mediated by HTEMPO

Abstract

Controlled/living photopolymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in miniemulsion mediated by 4-hydroxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-piperidinyloxy (HTEMPO) was carried out at ambient temperatures. MMA miniemulsion was prepared by using an anionic surfactant with cetylalcohol as a co-stabilizer. The photopolymerization led to stable lattices and they were obtained with no coagulation during synthesis and no destabilization over time. It was found that the obtained MMA homopolymers exhibited relatively narrow molecular weight distribution (PDI = 1.27 - 1.36) which was characterized by GPC. The plots of number-average molecular weight in (M_n) vs. conversion and ln([M₀]/[M]) vs. time both were linear indicating that the reaction was a controlled/living free radical polymerization.

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