Arenesulfonyl bromides: The second universal class of functional initiators for the metal‐catalyzed living radical polymerization of methacrylates,acrylates, and styrenes

The metal‐catalyzed living radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate, n‐butyl acrylate, and styrene, initiated with p‐toluenesulfonyl bromide and phenoxybenzene‐4,4′‐disulfonyl bromide and catalyzed with CuBr/2,2′‐bipyridine (bpy) and various self‐regulated Cu‐based catalytic systems such as Cu₂O/bpy, Cu₂S/bpy, Cu₂Se/bpy, and Cu₂Te/bpy, is reported. Similarities and differences between the arenesulfonyl chloride and arenesulfonyl bromide initiators are discussed. The arenesulfonyl bromide initiators require reduced reaction times to produce polymers in high conversions under milder reaction conditions than the corresponding arenesulfonyl chloride initiators. At the same time, they exhibit 100% initiator efficiency and generate polymers with narrow molecular weight distributions and functional chain ends. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 319–330, 2005