Acrylonitrile-Butadiene Rubber (NBR) Prepared via Living/Controlled Radical Polymerization (RAFT).

In the current work we present results on the controlled/living radical copolymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) and 1,3-butadiene (BD) via reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization techniques. For the first time, a solution polymerization process for the synthesis of nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) via the use of dithioacetate and trithiocarbonate RAFT agents is described. It is demonstrated that the number average molar mass, $\overline M _{\rm n} $, of the NBR can be varied between a few thousand and 60 000 g · mol(-1) with polydispersities between 1.2 and 2.0 (depending on the monomer to polymer conversion). Excellent agreement between the experimentally observed and the theoretically expected molar masses is found. Detailed information on the structure of the synthesized polymers is obtained by variable analytical techniques such as infrared spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (ESI-MS).