TREN versus Me6‐TREN as ligands in SET‐LRP of methyl acrylate

The commercially available tris(2‐aminoethyl)amine (TREN) was used as ligand to mediate the single‐electron transfer‐living radical polymerization (SET‐LRP) of methyl acrylate in dimethyl sulfoxide initiated with the bifunctional initiator bis(2‐bromopropionyl)ethane and catalyzed by both nonactivated and activated Cu(0) wire. A comparative study between TREN and tris(2‐dimethylaminoethyl)amine (Me6‐TREN) ligand, that is more commonly used in SET‐LRP, demonstrated that TREN provided a slower polymerization but the chain‐ends functionality of the resulting bifunctional poly(methyl acrylate) was near quantitative and comparable to that obtained when Me6‐TREN was used as a ligand.