Continuous SET-LRP of acrylonitrile in iron tube without any ligand

Graphical Iron tube was applied as catalyst source in the design of continuous SET-LRP of AN without any ligand using BPN as initiator in NMP and DMF, respectively. First-order kinetics of polymerization with respect to the monomer concentration, linear increase of the molecular weight, and narrow polydispersity with monomer conversion showed the controlled radical polymerization characters. An increase in polymerization rate in NMP was observed compared with in DMF. The living feature of PAN was verified by chain extensions of PAN with MMA.