Reversible-deactivation polymerization (RDP) is a form of
polymerization
In polymer chemistry, polymerization (American English), or polymerisation (British English), is a process of reacting monomer, monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. There are ...
propagated by chain carriers the some of which at any instant are held in a state of dormancy through an
equilibrium process involving other species.
An example of reversible deactivation anionic polymerization (RDAP) is group transfer polymerization of alkyl methacrylates, where the initiator and the dormant state is a
silyl ketene acetal
Silyl enol ethers in organic chemistry are a class of organic compounds that share a common functional group composed of an enolate bonded through its oxygen end to an organosilicon group. They are important intermediates in organic synthesis.
S ...
.
In the case of
reversible deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP), a majority of chain must be held in a dormant state to ensure that the concentration of active carriers is sufficiently low as to render
chain termination
Chain termination is any chemical reaction that ceases the formation of reactive intermediates in a chain propagation step in the course of a polymerization, effectively bringing it to a halt.
Mechanisms of termination
In polymer chemistry, ...
reactions negligible.
Despite having some common features, RDP is distinct from
living polymerization
In polymer chemistry, living polymerization is a form of chain growth polymerization where the ability of a growing polymer chain to terminate has been removed. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Chain termination and chain transfer r ...
which requires a complete absence of termination and irreversible chain transfer.
References
Polymer chemistry
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