Abstract
Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) have proved over recent years to be useful and unique reaction media for a variety of chemical reactions. Faster reaction rates and better selectivities are often observed in RTILs as compared to those in common organic solvents. In addition to these advantages, the low volatility, nonflammability, and recycling potential also help RTILs become a preferred alternative reaction medium to meet environmental and other requirements. This is evidenced by the ever increasing number of papers published in this area every year and interesting and important discoveries. When conventional free radical polymerizations are carried out in RTILs, there is an increase in the propagation rate due to the high polarity of the RTIL and a decrease in the termination rate because of the high viscosity of the RTILs, and thus the overall reaction rate is greatly increased along with an increase in molecular weight. For living/controlled polymerization such as atom transfer radical polymerization and radical addition‐fragmentation and transfer, the reactions in RTILs are still controllable with faster reaction rates and easy separation of catalysts and/or ligands from the resulting polymers. Nearly all types of polymerization processes have now been successfully conducted in RTILs, often with advantageous effects.
Published Version
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