Abstract: | Bromo‐Double‐Terminated polystyrene (Br‐PSt‐Br) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (Br‐PMMA‐Br) with predesigned molecular weight and narrow polydispersity were prepared by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) using the initiating system aa′‐dibromo‐p‐xylene(DBX) / CuBr/2,2′‐bipyridine(bipy). The precursor bromo‐terminated polymers were subsequently functionalized with fullerene C60 using CuBr/bipy as the catalyst system under microwave irradiation (MI). The telechelic C60 end‐capped products were characterized by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), UV‐vis, FT‐IR, TGA, DSC, 1H NMR, and 13C NMR. The results showed that microwave irradiation could significantly increase the rate of fullerenation reaction, and the physical properties and structure of the C60 end‐capped polymers are not modified by the use of the microwave. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 99: 828–834, 2006 |