Living Radical Polymerization 1. Polymerization Mechanism and Methods 1

Abstract

Living radical polymerization (LRP) has been becoming an indispensable method for the synthesis of functional polymer materials, because this method possesses attractive features of both radical and living polymerizations. This four-series article describes the methods to carry out LRP and their uses for material synthesis. We shall mainly focused on nitroxide-mediated LRP (NMP), atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT), organotellurium-, stibine-, and bismuthine-mediated LRP (TERP, SBRP, and BIRP, respectively), and cobalt-mediated LRP (CORP). This first article mainly focuses on methods and mechanisms of NMP and ATRP, in which the persistent radical effect plays an important role in the polymerization mechanism.