Atom transfer radical addition and polymerization reactions catalyzed by ppm amounts of copper complexes

Over the past decade, copper-catalyzed atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) has had a tremendous impact on the synthesis of polymeric materials with well defined compositions, architectures and functionalities. Apart from synthetic aspects of ATRP, considerable effort has also been devoted to structural and mechanistic understanding of copper complexes involved in ATRP, as well as development of methodologies to decrease the amount of catalyst needed in these systems. This tutorial review reports on recent advances in the area of catalyst regeneration in ATRP and mechanistically similar atom transfer radical addition (ATRA) using environmentally benign reducing agents. The outlined processes termed ARGET (activators regenerated by electron transfer) and ICAR (initiators for continuous activator regeneration) ATRP enable the synthesis of well-defined (co)polymers and single addition adducts using very low concentrations of copper catalysts (1-100 ppm). Recent developments in this area could have profound industrial implications on the synthesis of well-defined polymeric materials and small organic molecules.