New developments in the 'living' anionic polymerization of (meth)acrylic ester

The important development of polyalkyl(meth)acrylate-based products during the last decade has been due both to the growth of well-established general purpose polymers (i.e. polymethylmethacrylate PMMA, and rubbery or adhesive polyalkylacrylates such as ethyl, butyl and ethylhexyl derivatives), and the surge of new materials for highly specialized technologies (f.i. optical fibers, microlithography, biomedical hydrogels). The present paper describes the extension of the performances of the LiCl-modified initiators to the controlled synthesis of new molecular architectures, including star-block copolymers and α - or α, ω end functionalized building blocks such as macromonomers for polyaddition and polysubstitution reactions.