Living anionic polymerization of (meth)acrylic esters: New mechanistic concepts and resulting materials

As an illustration of the frantic development of (meth)acrylic esters anionic polymerization during the last decade, three significant breakthroughs will be presented and analyzed:— extension of the LAP (ligated anionic polymerization) concept to the practical synthesis of both high iso- or syndio high MW PMMA; — the production of “perfect” hydrocarbon gels from tailored PMMA-polybutadiene-PMMA triblock copolymers; — the use of reactivity “boosters” allowing to climb back up the nucleophilic reactivity scale, i.e. initiating styrene, dienes and (meth)acrylates polymerization with alcoholates and silanolates.