Investigation on Chain Transfer Reaction of Benzene Sulfonyl Chloride in Styrene Radical Polymerization

The free radical polymerization of styrene was initiated with azobis(isobutyronitrile) in the presence of benzene sulfonyl chloride. Analysis of the terminal structures of the obtained polystyrene with H-1 NMR spectroscopy revealed the presence of a phenylsulfonyl group at the a-end and a chlorine atom at the omega-end of each polystyrene chain. The terminal chlorine atom in the polystyrene chains was further confirmed through atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of styrene and methyl acrylate using the obtained polystyrenes as macroinitiators and CuCl/2,2'-bipyridine as the catalyst system. GPC traces of the products obtained in ATRP at different reaction times were clearly shifted to higher molecular weight direction, indicating that nearly all the macroinitiator chains initiated ATRP of the second monomers. In addition, the number-average molecular weights of the polystyrenes increased directly proportional to the monomer conversions, and agreed well with the theoretical ones.