Controlled chain branching by RAFT-based radical polymerization

Styrene radical polymerization was carried out in the presence of a polymerizable dithioester, benzyl 4-vinyldithiobenzoate, which possesses a dithioester group and a polymerizable double bond. Branched polystyrene was formed during the polymerization, as indicated by multimodal GPC curves of the products. The branched polystyrene contains a dithiobenzoate C( S)S moiety at each branch point and thus can be analyzed by cleavage with amine. After cleavage, the GPC profiles became narrow. The molecular weight of the cleaved product increased linearly with monomer conversion, illustrating a living fashion of the polymerization. Solution property obtained by simultaneous online measurements of viscosity and light scattering indicates that the viscosity of the branched product decreased remarkably as compared to the linear polystyrene of equivalent molecular weight. The copolymerization behavior of styrene and benzyl 4-vinyldithiobenzoate was investigated by FT-IR monitoring during the polymerization. The results show that the latter was incorporated homogeneously into polystyrene chain. Therefore, branched polystyrene was synthesized with controlled architecture in the light of the length and narrow distribution of primary chains as well as the degree and the distribution of branching along the polymer chain.