Thiol-ene Functionalisation of RAFT-derived Poly (n-butyl acrylate) Polymaers in a Labtrix® Micro Reactor

Owing to the significant challenges associated with scaling controlled polymerisations whereby laborious synthetic processes suffer losses in reaction efficiency at scales beyond the microgram level, Junkers at the Universiteit Hasselet (Belgium) Hornung at CSIRO (Australia) and Seeberger at Freie Universitat Berlin (Germany) have assessed the performance and derivitisation of RAFT-polymers using the emerging technique of continuous flow. With numerous operational advantages illustrated for conventional organic synthetic reactions, such as increased reaction selectivity, reduced reaction times and access to novel processing windows, it has been proposed that this methodology could provide access to a high degree of reproducibility and process control for polymerisations and their associated reactions.