Organotellurium-Mediated Radical Polymerization (TERP)

ontrolled radical polymerization, also known as living radical polymerization, has made significant advances during the last three decades and has revolutionized the development of polymeric materials.[1,2] While atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT) are the most popular methods, the present authors have independently developed organotellurium-mediated radical polymerization (TERP) and have implemented it in society through industry-academic collaborations.[3–6] TERP fulfills five important technological requirements, which are the keys to its success: 1) high versatility for applicable monomers with different reactivities, 2) high compatibility toward polar functional groups, 3) high flexibility in copolymer synthesis, 4) high diversity in end group transformations, and 5) high reliability in largescale synthesis. In this article, the features of TERP related to 1–4) will be discussed. Until recently, controlled radical polymerization was limited to synthesizing polymers with linear structures.