Controlled radical polymerization of furfuryl methacrylate

Atom transfer radical polymerization provides a new method of controlled radical polymerization. The most important advantage of ATRP is that it is tolerant to the different functional groups present in the initiator as well as in the monomer. Furfuryl Methacrylate (FMA) is a specialty monomer, which has applications in coatings, adhesives and in biomedicals. Conventional radical polymerization of FMA leads to excessive gel formation, which limits its applications. In this investigation homo and co-polymerization of FMA has been carried out via ATRP. ATRP of FMA was carried out using CuBr as catalyst and 1, 1, 4, 7, 10, to hexamethyltriethylenetetramine (HMTETA) as ligand. There was no gel formation during the polymerization. ATRP of FMA was well controlled with a linear increase of molecular weight (Mn) with monomer conversion. The polymers were characterized by using (HNMR)-H-1, FT-IR and GPC analysis. interestingly, it was observed that the furfuryl ring was not affected during polymerization.