Atom transfer radical polymerizations of methyl methacrylate catalyzed by EBiB/SnCl2·2H2O(FeCl2·4H2O)/FeCl3·6H2O/MA5-DETA systems

The ATRP of methyl methacrylate (MMA) with the system of FeCl₂·4H₂O, N,N,N′,N″,N″-penta(methyl acylate)diethylenetriamine (MA₅-DETA) and ethyl 2-bromoisobutyrate (EBiB) showed high activity and is not well-controlled. The addition of a certain amount of FeCl₃·6H₂O as the additive into the above system results in the decrease of the polymerization rate and the improvement of the controllability. When SnCl₂·2H₂O was added instead of FeCl₂·4H₂O, a novel catalyst system SnCl₂·2H₂O/FeCl₃·6H₂O/EBiB/MA₅-DETA formed shows better controllability, higher catalytic activity and higher initiating efficiencies (more than 90%) in comparison with the system FeCl₂·2H₂O/FeCl₃·6H₂O/EBiB/MA₅-DETA. The polydispersities of the polymers kept range from M_w/M_n=1.18-1.26. The real active species in the new system is Fe (II) formed from the reaction of FeCl₃·6H₂O with the active radical species produced from the reaction of SnCl₂·2H₂O with EBiB.