Cobalt-mediated radical polymerization (CMRP) was used to prepare well-defined poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) as the macroinitiator in the reverse atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and styrene (Sty) for the synthesis of block copolymers of PVAc-b-PMMA and PVAc-b-PSty with linearly increased molecular weight and smoothly shifted gel permeation chromatography (GPC) traces. The chain extension from PVAc to PMMA or PSty via the hybridization of CMRP and ATRP required neither a difunctional initiator nor further chain-end modification and was as simple as regular chain extension in the reverse ATRP process. Because the cobalt complex bonded to the chain end of PVAc was dissociated during the ATRP process, this method also efficiently solved the issue of metal removal in the CMRP process.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.