| Abstract: | In this article, we report the radical polymerization in the presence of peroxide and commercially available or designed reducing agent monomer (RAM) for the preparation of branched poly(methyl methacrylate)s (PMMAs). The reaction behavior of the RAM was studied by NMR. Triple‐detection SEC (TD‐SEC) analysis was used to confirm the branching structure of the prepared PMMAs and to investigate the influence of peroxide concentration and RAM concentration on molecular weight and branched structure. The obtained branched PMMAs exhibited high molecular weights and relatively narrow polydispersities at high conversion of MMA. Interestingly, a significant increase in molecular weight and degree of branching of the obtained polymers are observed in higher BPO concentration, these results are quite different from that reported in the literature. The unique radical polymerization mechanism in the RAM/BPO redox‐initiated radical polymerization system resulted in branched PMMAs with high molecular weights at relatively high RAM and BPO concentrations. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019 , 57, 833–840 |
