Visible Light and Sunlight Photoinduced ATRP with ppm of Cu Catalyst

Dominik Konkolewicz, Kristin Schröder, Johannes Buback, Stefan Bernhard, and Krzysztof Matyjaszewski

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/mz300457e

Photo-induced ATRP of acrylate or methacrylate-based monomers was catalyzed with minimal amounts of CuBr2 complexed with tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine (TPMA), pentamethyldiethylenetriamine, or tris((4-methoxy-3,5-dimethylpyridin-2-yl)methyl-amine), and initiated with ethyl alpha-bromoisobutyrate for acrylate or ethyl alpha-bromophenylacetate for methacrylates in the presence of visible (blue or violet) light or sunlight. Block copolymers of methyl methacrylate and ehtyl acrylate were also made, and polymerizations of monomethyl ether methacrylate were performed in water.