Dithiobenzoic copper(II): A novel, facile, and stable mediating agent combining ATRP and RAFT features for reversible deactivation radical polymerization of methacrylates

•Novel, facile, and stable mediating agent combining ATRP and RAFT characteristics has been designed.•The radical polymerization is potentially controlled by a combination of ATRP and RAFT mechanisms.•Without elaborately optimizing experimental parameters, the polymerization can easily synthesize well-defined polymer.

Novel, facile, and stable mediating agent (dithiobenzoic copper(II)) combining atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and reversible addition fragmentation transfer (RAFT) characteristics was firstly designed by replacing the halogen of ATRP metal catalyst with thiocarbonyl carboxylic group of RAFT agent. As two kinds of mediating agents (ATRP activator and RAFT agent) may be formed in situ during the polymerization process, the polymerization of various methacrylates can be controlled in presence of a high molar ratio of radical initiator to catalyst. Furthermore, the resultant polymer possessed dithiobenzoate chain-end functional group, which was confirmed by IH NMR analyses and chain-extension reaction.

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