Atom transfer radical addition and polymerization reactions catalyzed by ppm amounts of copper complexes

Over the past decade, copper-catalyzed atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) has had a tremendous impact on the synthesis of polymeric materials with well defined compositions, architectures and functionalities. Apart from synthetic aspects of ATRP, considerable effort has also been devoted to structural and mechanistic understanding of copper complexes involved in ATRP, as well as development of methodologies to decrease the amount of catalyst needed in these systems. This tutorial review reports on recent advances in the area of catalyst regeneration in ATRP and mechanistically similar atom transfer radical addition (ATRA) using environmentally benign reducing agents. The outlined processes termed…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• CM
  Carnegie Mellon University
• DU
  Duquesne University