Controlled copolymerization of acrylonitrile in bulk via the reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer mechanism

The pseudoliving radical binary copolymerization of acrylonitrile with methyl acrylate, styrene, n-butyl acrylate, and tert-butyl acrylate in bulk in the presence of the reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer agent dibenzyl trithiocarbonate is performed for the first time. The addition of trithiocarbonate makes it possible to prepare a narrowly dispersed visually optically transparent copolymer in a wide range of monomer-feed compositions even at limiting conversions. Conditions for the synthesis of acrylonitrile copolymers with controlled molecular masses and narrow molecular-mass distributions are ascertained. In the above copolymers, the trithiocarbonate group is shown to be located within the chain.