Equimolar copolymers of N-vinyl pyrrolidone with 1,1,1-3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl-a-fluoroacrylate were obtained by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer radical (RAFT) polymerization and by conventional radical polymerization (RAD). The copolymer conformation and compositional heterogeneity were analyzed by dynamic and static light scattering. RAFT copolymers of 41,000 M w 68,000 g=mol were shown to adopt cylindrical all-trans conformation. RAD copolymer of higher molecular mass (M w ¼ 390,000 g=mol) exhibited less extended conformation, thus indicating that the statistical Kuhn segment is less than RAD copolymer length.

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Controlled/living radical homopolymerization of isobornyl acrylate and its copolymerization with styrene with reversible chain transfer via the addition-fragmentation mechanism in the presence of ben zyl dithiobenzoate have been studied. It has been shown that the (co)polymerization proceeds through living chains, a result that is confirmed by a linear increase in the number average molecular weight with conversion and by low polydispersity indexes. With the use of polymer RAFT agents block copolymers have been synthe sized. Amphiphilic copolymers have been obtained through acid hydrolysis of isobornyl acrylate units in copolymers of various microstructures.