UV-mediated atom transfer radical polymerization of acrolein

In this paper, the polymerization of acrolein (A) via UV-mediated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) is reported. The optimization of the experimental conditions of the polymerization is investigated, and it shows that dimethyl sulfoxide as solvent, ethyl 2-bromoisobutyrate (EBIB) and fluorescein (FL) as catalyst, and [A] 0 /[EBIB] 0 /[FL] 0  = 200/1/0.1 in the period of 5 h at 47 °C are suitable conditions for the reaction. In this way, the yield of the polymer is 24.5%. The glass transition temperature and melting point of polyacrolein characterized by differential scanning calorimetry are 115.5 °C and 165.7 °C, respectively. At low conversion, the polymerization conforms to be the first-order kinetics reaction. The dependence of polymerization on light source is proved by “on/off” light source experiment. In short, this study opens up a new way for the ATRP of acrolein, and the polyacrolein with abundant aldehyde groups can be used in the fields of biomedical labeling, immobilization carrier and adsorption of organic amines. Graphic abstract