RAFT Polymerization of Styrene

Question

RAFT polymerization

(a)    How has the following polymer been prepared? Outline the mechanism.

 

(b) Imagine now that you take this polymer and mix it with styrene. The macroRAFT agent acts now similar to a RAFT agent and the PMMA chain is now the leaving group R. What structure would your final polymer have? What kind of polymer did you create? Outline the mechanism of the process.

(c) The molar ratio between styrene and thiocarbonylthio (RAFT group) is 500. The macroRAFT agent has a molecular weight of 20,000 g mol^-1. We polymerize styrene to 80%. What would your final molecular weight be?

Summary

The question belongs to Chemical Engineering and it is about RAFT polymerization. The question here is about finding how the polymer has been prepared and taking the polymer and mix with styrene and thiocarbonylthio.

Total Word Count 138