Programmed Synthesis of Copolymer with Controlled Chain Composition Distribution via Semibatch RAFT Copolymerization

It is well-known that controlled/living radical copolymerization (CLRcoP) yields gradient copolymer with the composition varying along chain length. The composition distribution of the as-synthesized product is solely determined by the comonomer reactivity ratios and is thus not well controlled. This work reports the first experimental example of the control over the copolymer composition distribution through semibatch operations. Using styrene …