Lemonade as a rich source of antioxidants: Polymerization of 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate in lemon extract

Controlled radical polymerization techniques have become increasingly widespread in the interdisciplinary space of polymer chemistry for receiving predetermined structures designed for specific applications. In this contribution, the freshly squeezed lemon extract was used for the polymerization of 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) by activators regenerated by electron transfer atom transfer radical polymerization (ARGET ATRP) concept at ambient conditions in an air atmosphere. Lemon extract is a rich source of many bioactive compounds that can play a role of reducing agents in ATRP, e.g. ascorbic acid (vitamin C) or citric acid. Therefore lemon extract-accelerated ARGET ATRP provided well-defined PDMAEMA structures, accelerating the polymerization about 3-4 times compared to syntheses in water. The chain extension experiment confirmed the preserved chain-end functionality of prepared PDMAEMA. The proposed concept can be scaled up for the industry due to (a) a facile reaction setup that does not need degassing or heating - the polymerization at room temperature in open to air conditions, hence the use of a readily available reactor is sufficient, (b) no need to use laboratory-grade chemical reducing agents because of their high content in lemon extract, (c) the synthesis in the environmentally-friendly aqueous reaction medium, (d) very low catalyst concentration in the reaction mixture.

Automated summary

Controlled radical polymerization techniques are widely used in polymer chemistry. The use of lemon extract in the polymerization of DMAEMA allows for accelerated synthesis and well-defined PDMAEMA structures. This method offers advantages such as a simple reaction setup, no need for laboratory-grade reducing agents, and environmentally friendly synthesis.