Living radical polymerization of isoprene via the RAFT process

The control over the polymerization of isoprene via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) is reported. The effects of RAFT agent, reaction temperature, and monomer concentration over molecular weight control and reaction kinetics were investigated. The optimized conditions were used to produce block copolymers of isoprene with styrene and tert-butyl acrylate.