Radical Decarboxylation for the Synthesis of Functionalised Polymers

Controlled radical polymerisations have emerged as powerful approaches in preparing polymers with predetermined molecular weights and low dispersities. Likewise, the ability to functionalise polymer endgroups has been a significant development in polymer synthesis since it permits the production of versatile polymer materials containing dyes, drugs, biomolecules or other conjugates. This thesis reports novel methods to prepare the functionalised polymers in a single-step synthesis employing commercially available carboxylic acids through radical decarboxylation. These developed methods are suitable to a broad range of carboxylic acid based materials, leading to polymers with various alpha endgroup derived from the carboxylic acids.