Stereocontrol in radical polymerization of benzyl α-(methoxymethyl)acrylate using zinc salts

The stereocontrol in radical polymerization was studied using benzyl α-(methoxymethyl)acrylate (BMMA) as a monomer in the presence of various metal salts, which may coordinate growing polymer and monomers. The addition of zinc chloride accelerates the polymerization rate of methacrylates, and tacticity is hardly changed during polymerization, while an increase of isotacticity is observed in radical bulk polymerization of the complexes of methacrylate with zinc chloride. Zinc salts characteristically affect the stereoregularity of poly(BMMA) in the radical polymerization, and a polar α-substituent on an acrylate is important in the stereocontrol of the system.