Anionic polymerization of long-chain alkyl methacrylates

Abstract

The important contribution of this communication is to show how narrow molecular weight distribution (MWD) (1.1–1.2) methacrylate homo and copolymers have been prepared at −30 °C without the addition of any ligands or additives in tetrahydrofuran. The basis of the polymerization was not to starve the growing polymer chain (because the polymerization is very fast), thereby suppressing unwanted side reactions. Polymerizations were obtained with ∼100% conversion and narrow MWD.