The telomerization of acrylic acid with a polyfunctional transfer agent initiated by 2,2'azobisisobutyronitrile, was ®rst investigated in an organic medium (THF) at 65°C. Transfer constants (C T ) for three mercaptans, ethylene glycol bisthioglycolate, trimethylolpropane tris(2-mercaptoacetate) and pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptopropionate) of about 6.1, 6.3 and 7.3, respectively, were determined. From these results, it followed that a well-de®ned star poly(acrylic acid) could not be synthesized via telomerization of acrylic acid in THF. Nevertheless, the same study was performed with the tetrafunctional transfer agent in water/THF mixtures. This work emphasized that the nature of the solvent plays an important role in determining the transfer constant. Thus, the value of C T for the tetrafunctional transfer agent decreased from 7.3 in THF to 1, the`ideal' case for telomerization (C T % 1), for the mixture of solvents water/THF (80%, 20%, v/v). With this route, it seems that acrylic acid star-shaped macromolecules could be synthesized via telomerization.