Harnessing the Potential of N-Heterocyclic Carbenes for the Rejuvenation of Group-Transfer Polymerization of (Meth)Acrylics

JEAN RAYNAUD; ANDRES CIOLINO; ANTOINE BACEIREDO; MATHIAS DESTARAC; FABIEN BONNETTE; TSUYOSHI KATO; DANIEL TATON; YVES GNANOU

Angewandte Chemie

WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH

Lugar: Weinheim; Año: 2008 vol. 2008 p. 5470 - 5473

1433-7851

At the time of its disclosure in 1983 by Webster et al., grouptransfer polymerization (GTP) was greeted as a major breakthrough in polymer chemistry, for it describes the living polymerization of (meth)acrylic monomers at ambient temperature. Herein, we demonstrate that N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) can efficiently catalyze the GTP of both methacrylic and acrylic monomers in regular polar or apolar organic media.