Controlled radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate in the presence of carbon tetrachloride, metallic copper and 2,2′-bipyridine or 1,10-phenanthroline

The polymerization behaviors of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the presence of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4), metallic copper powder (Cu-0) and 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) or 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) in p-xylene at 95 degrees C was examined. In both systems of Cu-0/bpy/CCl4/MMA/p-xylene and Cu-0/phen/CCl4/MMA/p-xylene, the 'living' nature of these two systems was demonstrated by the linear relationship between the MMA conversion and the number-average molecular weight (M-n) of the produced poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as well as reaction time and ln[M]o/[M]. Furthermore, the polydispersity index of the PMMA obtained in the former case was smaller than that in the latter case. In the Cu-0/bpy/CCl4/MMA/p-xylene system, with decreasing the amount of Cu-0, the polymerization rate decreased and the polydispersity of the obtained PMMA increased, while the M-n of PMMA was still close to the calculated one by assuming that one molecule of CCl4 initiates only one polymer chain. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.