A highly efficient photomediated atom transfer radical polymerization protocol is reported for semi-fluorinated acrylates and methacrylates. Use of the commercially available solvent, 2-trifluoromethyl-2-propanol, optimally balances monomer, polymer, and catalyst solubility while eliminating transesterification as a detrimental side reaction. In the presence of UV irradiation and ppm concentrat...

Multifunctional methacrylates are highly reactive monomers for radical photopolymerization, but yield brittle materials due to their inhomogeneous and highly crosslinked network architecture. Addition fragmentation chain transfer (AFCT) reagents serve as additives for the regulation of radical network formation and pave the way to photopolymer networks with high toughness. However, AFCT reagent...

Perfluoroalkylated methacrylates 7a-c bearing sulfinyl group within a straight-chain ester group, i.e. CH(2)=C(CH(3))CO(2)CH(2)CH(2)S(O)-CH(2)CH(2)CF(2)(CF(2)CF(2))(n)CF(3) (n=1-3) were prepared by two alternative synthetic sequences from 2-[(polyfluoroalkyl)sulfanyl]ethanols HOCH(2)CH(2)SCH(2)CH(2)CF(2)(CF(2)CF(2))(n)CF(3) (n=1-3) in overall yields of 88-91%. Copolymers of 7a-c with diethylene...

2014 The thermal behaviour of a series of side-chain liquid crystalline poly(methacrylates) has been investigated by thermogravimetry, differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing optical microscopy, and dilatometry. The DSC study has shown that long times are required to reach equilibrium even at temperatures above the glass transition. The thermotropic polymorphism has been determined as a f...

Surface initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) is one of the most versatile technique to modify the surface properties of material. Recent developed metal free SIATRP makes such technique more widely applicable. Herein photo-induced metal-free SI-ATRP of methacrylates, such as methyl methacrylate, N-isopropanyl acrylamide, and N,Ndimethylaminoethyl methacrylate, on the surface...