Atom transfer radical polymerization of n-octyl acrylate under microwave irradiation

The atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of n-octyl acrylate (OA) was successfully carried out using ethyl-2-bromobutyrate as an initiator, and CuBr/2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) as a catalyst under microwave irradiation (MI) at 76.8 degreesC. The polymerization of n-octyl acrylate under MI showed linear first-order rate plots, a linear increase of the number-average molecular weight M-n with conversion, and low polydispersities, 1.1 < M-w/M-n, < 1.4, where M-w is weight-average molecular weight. The ATRP of n-octyl acrylate is well controlled. Under the same experimental conditions, the apparent rate constant, k(p)(app), under MI is larger apparently than that under conventional heating. In addition, the effects of concentration of catalyst and other factors on polymerization are reported. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.