This investigation reports the synthesis of poly(methyl methacrylate) via activators regenerated by electron transfer atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET ATRP) and studies the effect of solvents and temperature on its polymerization kinetics. ARGET ATRP of methyl methacrylate (MMA) was carried out in different solvents and at different temperatures using CuBr 2 as catalyst in combination with N,N,N ′ ,N ″ ,N ″ -pentamethyldiethylenetriamine as a ligand. Methyl 2-chloro propionate was used as ATRP initiator and ascorbic acid was used as a reducing agent in the ARGET ATRP of MMA. The conversion was measured gravimetrically. The semilogarithmic plot of monomer conversion versus time was found to be linear, indicating that the polymerization follows first-order kinetics. The linear polymerization kinetic plot also indicates the controlled nature of the polymerization. N,N-Dimethylformamide (DMF), tetrahydrofuran (THF), toluene, and methyl ethyl ketone were used as solvents to study the effect on the polymerization kinetics. The effect of temperature on the kinetics of the polymerization was also studied at various temperatures. It has been observed that polymerization followed first-order kinetics in every case. The rate of polymerization was found to be highest (k app = 6.94 × 10 −3 min −1 ) at a fixed temperature when DMF was used as solvent. Activation energies for ARGET ATRP of MMA were also calculated using the Arrhenius equation. K E Y W O R D Satom transfer radical polymerization, kinetics, methyl methacrylate, solvent effect

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Plastic wastes are generally not easily degradable under the action of environmental components. They are very much resistant to microbial attack too. These non-biodegradable plastics accumulate over a longer period of time on earth leading to environmental pollution. However, this may be avoided by using biodegradable polymers. Thus the demand for the preparation of biodegradable polymers has grown up. In recent years, researchers have developed a few biodegradable polymers from renewable sources; those find a large application in the field of packaging, agriculture, and biomedical fields. Starch is one such biopolymer, modification of which may lead to a semi-synthetic polymer with good properties with an edge of biodegradability. Poly(methyl methacrylate) is a good modifying agent for such modification as revealed by the literature search. This review report summarizes the preparation of such poly(methyl methacrylate) grafted starch polymers via different physical and chemical methods, their properties, and their applications.

This investigation reports the synthesis and characterization of colloidal latices of butyl acrylate (BA) and its copolymers with styrene (Sty) and acrylonitrile (ACN). The copolymers of BA with Sty, P(BA-co-Sty) and with ACN, P(BA-co-ACN) were synthesized via emulsion polymerization using two different thermal initiators, ammonium persulfate (APS) and potassium persulfate (KPS). Sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) was used as surfactant in both the cases. The polymerizations were carried out at 70 ºC for 0.5 h. Attempts had also been made to prepare copolymers with different monomer composition. The progress of the polymerizations with time was monitored by measuring the conversion of monomers gravimetrically. The prepared lattices were characterized by GPC, UV-Vis, FT-IR and 1H NMR analyses. All the prepared lattices were transparent as evident by the UV-visible analysis. The FT-IR and 1H NMR analysis of the purified copolymers confirmed the successful preparation of the copolymers. The molar composition of the co-monomers in the copolymer was calculated by 1H NMR analysis.