Surfactant–Ligand Design for ab Initio Emulsion Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

We report an ab initio emulsion atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) based on micellar nucleation. A surfactant–ligand (SL) was designed and synthesized for this purpose. The SL design was an amphiphilic macromolecule, and it acted as the surfactant for micelle formation and as the ligand for ATRP catalyst. The micelles were converted into to polymer particles with both water-soluble and oil-soluble initiators. The micellar nucleation …