Synthesis of (meth)acrylate Block Copolymers by Ligated Anionic Polymerization

Synthetic potential of the ligated anionic polymerization (LAP) of acrylic and metacrylic esters initiated with methyl 2-lithioisobutyrate (MIB-Li) in the presence of an excess of alkali metal tert-alkoxides (prevailingly Li tert-butoxide) is presented. tert-Alkoxides form with ester-enolates, like MIB-Li, cross-aggregates of various composition, which tailor the environment of growing chain-ends, lower their nucleophilicity and restrict in this way the extent of side reactions, in particular self-termination of growing macroanions by back-biting reaction. Thus, stability of polymethacrylate living chains is sufficiently high for methacrylate and acrylate block copolymers to be synthesized. In the case of acrylate polymerization, reaction conditions must be optimized due to their high tendency to self-termination.