Effect of amines on controlled synthesis of poly(methyl methacrylate) in the presence of ruthenacarboranes

Abstract

290 The key trends in the development of the modern synthetic chemistry of polymers are directly related to the design of new polymeric materials having enhanced chemical and physicomechanical characteristics. An efficient way of solving this problem is to perform polymer synthesis in the presence of metal complexes that ensure the control of chain growth by the atom transfer mechanism (atom transfer radical polymerization, ATRP) [1, 2]. Ruthenium compounds were among the first catalysts used in controlled polymerization processes [3– 5]. Rather recently, original catalyst systems based on ruthenium carborane complexes were proposed for the synthesis of macromolecules by the ATRP mechanism [6, 7]. Ruthenacarboranes exceed other ruthenium derivatives in activity and do not require the addition of co-catalysts (aluminum alkoxides). However, the rate of controlled polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) in the presence of these compounds remains rather low compared to that in the conventional radical polymerization.