The author of 《Electrochemically Mediated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization of Methyl Methacrylate: The Importance of Catalytic Halogen Exchange》 were De Bon, Francesco; Isse, Abdirisak A.; Gennaro, Armando. And the article was published in ChemElectroChem in 2019. Formula: Br2Cu The author mentioned the following in the article:
Electrochem. mediated atom transfer radical polymerization (eATRP) of Me methacrylate (MMA) was studied in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium triflate ([BMIm][OTf]) and ethanol. When 2-bromopropionitrile and Et 2-bromoisobutyrate were used as initiators, poorly controlled or uncontrolled polymerizations yielding polymers with mol. weights largely exceeding the theor. values were obtained. Poor control was attributed to a reactivity mismatch between initiator and dormant species, which was successfully suppressed by combining eATRP with catalytic halogen exchange. Well-defined polymers (Mn greater than 30000 and D less than 1.2) were obtained in both solvents under optimized conditions. The possibility of using PMDETA as an inexpensive ligand in combination with Et α-bromophenylacetate as initiator was also successful. Good chain-end fidelity during eATRP was confirmed by chain extension of PMMA-Cl macroinitiator with MMA in ethanol. Polymers prepared in both solvents were found to be mainly syndiotactic, without any solvent effect on tacticity. After reading the article, we found that the author used Cupric bromide(cas: 7789-45-9Formula: Br2Cu)
Cupric bromide(cas: 7789-45-9) can be used as reducing agent, when complexed by three molecules of pyridine initiators for the controlled polymerization of styrene, methyl acrylate and methyl methacrylate.Formula: Br2Cu
Referemce:
Copper catalysis in organic synthesis – NCBI,
Special Issue “Fundamentals and Applications of Copper-Based Catalysts”