RAFT/MADIX polymerization of N-vinylcaprolactam in water–ethanol solvent mixtures

Abstract

The present paper demonstrates the successful RAFT/MADIX polymerization of N-vinylcaprolactam at ambient temperature in water–ethanol mixtures. It was observed that the monomer conversion increased with increasing v% of water present in the solvent due to an improved polymer solvation. Simultaneously the monomer hydrolysis also increased with increasing water content and a 1 : 1 ratio of water and ethanol was found as optimum regarding both polymerization rate and insignificant hydrolysis. In future, the application of these low toxicity solvent mixtures of ethanol and water can be applied to enable new avenues towards bioconjugation.