Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

Atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is a controlled/"living" polymerization system. ATRP is based on a reversible exchange between a low concentration of growing radicals and a dormant species. Reactivation of the dormant species allows the polymer chains to grow and deactivate again. The radical formation is occurred by transition metal catalyst that activates the organic initiator or dormant species by abstracting a halide at the chain end. This process results in a polymer chain that grows slowly and steadily and has a well-defined end group, because under appropriate conditions the contribution of termination is small. In this typical living polymerization, the molecular mass can be well controlled while maintaining the narrow molecular weight distribution. ATRP is capable of polymerizing of wide variety of monomers and is tolerant of trace impurities, thus ATRP is readily applicable to industrial processes.