Living radical polymerizations of ethyl and n-butyl
methacrylates (EMA and BMA,
respectively) have been achieved with ternary initiating systems that
consist of carbon tetrachloride,
tris(triphenylphosphine)ruthenium dichloride
[RuCl2(PPh3)3], and aluminum
compounds such as MeAl(ODBP)2 (ODBP, 2,6-di-tert-butylphenoxy) and
Al(OiPr)3 in toluene at 60−80 °C.
The produced polymers
had narrow molecular weight distributions (MWDs)
(M̄
w/M̄
n =
1.2−1.5) and controlled molecular weights
that are nearly proportional to monomer conversion. Sequential
living polymerizations of these
methacrylates from methyl methacrylate (MMA) afforded AB-type block
copolymers with narrow MWDs
(M̄
w/M̄
n ∼
1.2). Further addition of MMA into the living AB block copolymers
gave ABA-type triblock
copolymers
poly(MMA-b-BMA-b-MMA).
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