Review of vinyl graft copolymerization featuring recent advances toward controlled radical-based reactions and illustrated with chitin/chitosan trunk polymers

A review of the vinyl graft copolymerization featuring the recent advances towards controlled radical-based reactions was presented. The radical chain growth mechanisms were important for polymer synthesis due to their greater versatility relative to cationic and anionic methods. Chitin and chitosan were described as initiators capable of metal chelation and their use required careful evaluation of how the complexes interacted with the trunk polymer backbone. The kinetics of vinyl polymerization and graft copolymerization using a radical mechanism was described.