Initiation behavior of dendritic multi-arm initiator in atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP)

A 2-arm poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) effect where the number of halogenated endgroups is lower that the theoretical value and the ratio varies as a function of the polymerization conditions is investigated. Polymers from deuterated monomer are synthesized. Results on the initiation behavior of the dendritic 12-arm initiator showed that a minimum molecular weight of the star polymer is required to initiate all initiator functions. This also means that the polydispersity of the arms is relatively high even if the polydispersity of the star polymer is low.