Atom transfer radical coupling of polystyrene and poly(methyl acrylate) synthesized by reverse iodine transfer polymerization

Iodo-terminated polystyrene and poly(methyl acrylate) (PMA-I) were synthesized by reverse iodine transfer polymerization. The resulting polymers were coupled by atom transfer radical coupling using Cu(I)/linear amino-ligand catalysts in the presence of reducing Cu(0). The efficiency of the coupling reaction is discussed as a function of various factors, namely, the Cu(0) particle sizes, the number of nitrogen present in the ligand structure, the type of halogen associated with Cu(I) (CuX, X = I, Br, Cl), the nature of the polymer and the nature of the chain ends. In particular, a quantitative coupling (100%) was obtained with a CuBr/HMTETA system in the presence of nanosized Cu(0) for PMA-I, thus opening for the first time a facile route to telechelic and multiblock poly(acrylate)-based structures.