THERMOSENSITIVITY OF NARROW-DISPERSED POLY(N-n-PROPYLACRYLAMIDE) PREPARED BY ATOM TRANSFER RADICAL POLYMERIZATION

Controlled polymerization of N-n-propylacrylamide was achieved by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP)in a N,N-dimethylformamide-water mixture (50 vol%) at room temperature with methyl 2-chloropropinonate as initiator andCuCl/tris(2-dimethylaminoethyl)amine as the catalytic system in a ratio of 1:1:1. High molecular weight homopolymers (upto 3.7×104) with narrow molecular weight distribution (less than 1.2) were obtained. The living character of thepolymerization was further demonstrated by self-blocking experiment. An inverse molecular weight dependence of the cloudpoint of narrow-dispersed poly(N-n-propylacrylamide) aqueous solution was determined by turbidimetry and differentialscanning calorimetry, especially for the low molecular weight samples.