Cationic Polymerization Initiated By Electrochemically Generated Dendritic Cations

Dendritic diarylcarbenium ions, which were generated by the electrochemical oxidation of dendritic diarylmethylsilane, were found to initiate the cationic polymerization of vinyl ethers in flow microreactor systems. Extremely fast micromixing and high-resolution residence time control are responsible for narrow molecular weight distribution of the resulting linear-dendritic hybrid polymers. The end-functionalization was also successfully achieved.