Controlled/living atom transfer radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate in the synthesis of triblock copolymers from a poly(oxyethylene) macroinitiator

Atom transfer radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate initiated by a poly(oxyethylene) macroinitiator by the esterification of PEG 1500 with 2-chloro propionyl chloride was synthesized. These polymerization proceeds both in bulk and solution with a quantitative initiation efficiency, leading to A-B-A triblock copolymers. The macroinitiators and their block copolymers were characterized by FT-IR, FT-NMR and GPC analyses. In bulk polymerization, the kinetic study showed that the relationship between ln[M]0/[M] vs time was linear showing that there is a constant concentration of active species throughout the polymerization and follow the first order kinetics with respect to monomer. Moreover, the experimental molecular weight of the block copolymers increased linearly with the monomer conversion and the polydispersity index remained between 1.3 and 1.5 throughout the polymerization. No formation of homo poly(methyl methacrylate) could also be detected, and all this confirms that the bulk polymerization proceeds in a controlled/living manner. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.