Grafting from Surfaces for “Everyone”:  ARGET ATRP in the Presence of Air

Atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is one of the controlled/living radical polymerizations yielding well-defined (co)polymers, nanocomposites, molecular hybrids, and bioconjugates. ATRP, as in any radical process, has to be carried out in rigorously deoxygenated systems to prevent trapping of propagating radicals by oxygen. Herein, we report that ATRP can be performed in the presence of limited amount of air and with a very small (typically ppm) amount of copper catalyst together with an appropriate reducing agent. This technique has been successfully applied to the preparation of densely grafted polymer brushes, poly(n-butyl acrylate) homopolymer, and poly(n-butyl acrylate)-block-polystyrene…