IronIIIMediated ATRP of Methyl Methacrylate Using Activators Generated by Electron Transfer

A novel procedure, atomtransfer radical polymerization using activators generated by electron transfer AGET ATRP mediated by iron catalyst, was developed, using an oxidatively stable FeCl3triphenylphosphine as a catalyst complex, ascorbic acid as a reducing agent, and methyl methacrylate as a monomer. The polymerization can be conducted successfully in the presence of a limited amount of air and shows the features of “living”controlled freeradical polymerizations such as numberaverage molecular weights increasing linearly with monomer conversion and narrow molecular weight distributions. The living feature of the obtained polymer was further verified by a chain extension experiment.