Volume 41, Issue 14 pp. 1684-1690
Concise Report

Tuning Polymer Molecular Weight Distribution in Cationic RAFT Polymerization by Mixing Chain Transfer Agents

Miao Chen

Miao Chen

State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Design and Precision Synthesis, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123 China

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Jiajia Li

Corresponding Author

Jiajia Li

State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Design and Precision Synthesis, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123 China

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
Dong Xing

Dong Xing

State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Design and Precision Synthesis, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123 China

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Xiangqiang Pan

Xiangqiang Pan

State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Design and Precision Synthesis, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123 China

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Jian Zhu

Corresponding Author

Jian Zhu

State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, Suzhou Key Laboratory of Macromolecular Design and Precision Synthesis, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123 China

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
First published: 16 February 2023
Citations: 2

Dedicated to the Special Issue of Emerging Themes in Polymer Science.

Comprehensive Summary

Polymer dispersity (Đ) or molecular weight distribution (MWD) is a basic but vital parameter for the properties of polymeric materials. Developing new methodologies for controlling polymer MWD is emerging as a research hotspot. However, the methods to tune polymer MWD in cationic polymerization are still not well explored. Herein, we present a simple method to control the dispersity of poly(isobutyl vinyl ether) (PIBVE) by mixing two different chain transfer agents in batch visible light induced cationic RAFT polymerization. A broad dispersity range (Đ ≈ 1.16—1.80) was successfully achieved while maintaining monomodal MWD. Moreover, chain extension of PIBVE through both cationic polymerization and radical polymerization has been studied, which also provides a method to tune polymer MWD in mechanism transformation polymerization.image

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