The reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization of 1-ethoxyethyl acrylate (EEA) was demonstrated. Temperature optimization revealed an optimum polymerization temperature of 70 °C. Deprotection of the p(EEA) could be performed by a simple heating step, under mild conditions leading to well-defined poly(acrylic acid) (p(AA)) and under more severe conditions resulting in cross-linked networks of p(AA). In addition, block copolymers with a poly(methyl acrylate), a poly( n -butyl acrylate), a poly(methyl methacrylate), or a poly( N,N -(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) first block and a p(EEA) second block were successfully synthesized by RAFT polymerization in toluene as was demonstrated by GPC and 1 H NMR characterization. For all these experiments, a high-throughput workflow procedure was used. Deprotection of the p(EEA) containing block copolymers was also performed, resulting in well-defined p(AA) containing materials as evidenced by both GPC and 1 H NMR spectroscopy.
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Hoogenboom et al. (2005) studied this question.