Controlled Radical Polymerization in Aqueous Dispersed Media

Maud Save; Yohann Guillaneuf; Robert G. Gilbert

doi:10.1071/CH06308

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Controlled Radical Polymerization in Aqueous Dispersed Media

Maud Save ^A , Yohann Guillaneuf ^B and Robert G. Gilbert ^B ^C

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Université Pierre et Marie Curie—Paris 6, Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères, UMR 7610 associée au CNRS, 75252 Paris, Cedex 05, France.

^B Key Centre for Polymer Colloids, School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, Sydney NSW 2006, Australia.

^C Corresponding author. Email: gilbert@chem.usyd.edu.au

Maud Save received her degree in chemistry from the University Bordeaux I (France) in 1997. Her Ph.D., under the supervision of Alain Soum, focussed on the ring-opening polymerization of cyclic esters initiated by rare earth derivatives and was completed in 2000. Post-doctoral positions at the University of Sussex (UK) and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Industries Chimiques (ENSIC) in Nancy (France) followed. In October 2002 she obtained a permanent position at the CNRS Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères at University P. et M. Curie, Paris. Her current research program, Bernadette Charleux's group, is focussed on controlled radical polymerization either applied in aqueous dispersed media or used for the elaboration of hybrid organic–inorganic materials.

Yohann Guillaneuf received his degree in engineering from ENSIC in 2002 and his Ph.D., under the supervision of Denis Bertin in Marseilles, in 2006. His research work focussed on the theoretical and experimental aspects of the nitroxide-mediated radical polymerization. Since June 2006, he has been carrying out research on the characterization of non-starch polysaccharides in the Key Centre for Polymer Colloids (KCPC) in Sydney.

Robert G. (Bob) Gilbert is currently Director of the KCPC at the University of Sydney, but will soon move to the University of Queensland (2007–). He received his undergraduate training at the University of Sydney (1966) and his Ph.D. from the Australian National University (1970). He carried out postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1970–1972) then returned to Sydney. He is author of 330 papers, four patents, and two books. His research achievements include developing new theoretical and experimental methods for mechanistic investigation in polymerization kinetics with emphasis on emulsion polymerizations. He was Chair of the IUPAC Working Party on polymerization modelling and mechanisms (1988–1995), President of IUPAC's Macromolecular Division (1998–2001), and Elected Member of the IUPAC Bureau (2002–2005). His prizes include the RACI's Smith Medal (1992), Polymer Medal (1995), Olle Prize (1996), Physical Chemistry Medal (1998), and Applied Research Medal (2005), and shared the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering Medal (1993). He is a member of the editorial boards of Biomacromolecules, Journal of Polymer Science, and Polymer and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

Australian Journal of Chemistry 59(10) 693-711 https://doi.org/10.1071/CH06308
Submitted: 22 August 2006 Accepted: 21 September 2006 Published: 30 October 2006

Abstract

Controlled radical polymerization (CRP), sometimes also termed ‘living’ radical polymerization, offers the potential to create a wide range of polymer architectures, and its implementation in aqueous dispersed media (e.g. emulsion polymerization, used on a vast scale industrially) opens the way to large-scale manufacture of products based on this technique. Until recently, implementing CRP in aqueous dispersed media was plagued with problems such as loss of ‘living’ character and loss of colloidal stability. This review examines the basic mechanistic processes in free-radical polymerization in aqueous dispersed media (e.g. emulsion polymerization), and then examines, through this mechanistic understanding, the new techniques that have been developed over the last few years to implement CRP successfully in emulsion polymerizations and related processes. The strategies leading to these successes can thus be understood in terms of the various mechanisms which dominate CRP systems in dispersed media; these mechanisms are sometimes quite different from those in conventional free-radical polymerization in these media.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Professors Greg Russell and Bernadette Charleux, and Drs Julien Nicolas, Guillaume Delaittre, Olivier Guerret, and Stéphanie Magnet for fruitful discussions. Funding from the Australian Research Council through a Discovery project, from Arkema Co., the French CNRS, and the French Ministry of Research are appreciated. The Key Centre for Polymer Colloids was established and supported by the Australian Research Council’s Research Centres program.

References

Controlled Radical Polymerization in Aqueous Dispersed Media

Abstract

Acknowledgments

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