TREN versus Me₆-TREN as ligands in SET-LRP of methyl acrylate

The commercially available tris(2-aminoethyl)amine (TREN) was used as ligand to mediate the single-electron transfer-living radical polymerization (SET-LRP) of methyl acrylate in dimethyl sulfoxide initiated with the bifunctional initiator bis(2-bromopropionyl)ethane and catalyzed by both nonactivated and activated Cu(0) wire. A comparative study between TREN and tris(2-dimethylaminoethyl)amine (Me₆-TREN) ligand, that is more commonly used in SET-LRP, demonstrated that TREN provided a slower polymerization but the chain-ends functionality of the resulting bifunctional poly(methyl acrylate) was near quantitative and comparable to that obtained when Me₆-TREN was used as a ligand.