Replacing organics with water: Macromolecular engineering of non-water miscible poly(meth)acrylates via interfacial and ion-pair catalysis SARA ATRP in miniemulsion

The paper presents the possibility to synthesize immiscible with water, well-defined poly(meth)acrylates via supplemental activation and reducing agent atom transfer radical polymerization (SARA ATRP) in a miniemulsion environment, using a copper wire (Cu⁰) as reducing agent and supplemental activator. This is the first example of interfacial and ion-pair catalysis presented for Cu⁰-mediated ATRP carried out in heterogeneous media. In addition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for further analysis of the occurring processes and miniemulsion droplets were characterized by dynamic light scattering (DLS). Particular attention was paid to the selection of optimum reaction conditions and the applicability of the developed system for a wide range of monomers. For the sake of the environment, the advantages of the presented polymerization technique in the context of sustainable development of the chemical industry were analyzed and highlighted by calculating the green metrics (environmental factors – E-factors) for the synthesized polymers.