How to control acrylamide polymerization?

To conclude, the controlled polymerizations of acrylamide have been successfully achieved via a one-pot and one-step aqueous Cu (0)-mediated RDRP approach. It has been demonstrated that strong deactivation control is the key for the control in AM RDRPs.

What is copper-catalyzed controlled polymerization of acrylamide?

Copper-catalyzed controlled polymerization of acrylamide (AM) has always been a challenge, which typically exhibits low monomer conversion and broad molecular weight distribution (MWD) or requires complex/multistep reaction procedures, due to the highly active nature of the AM radical and its side reactions.

Are polyacrylamide hydrogels a model system for highly elastic polymer networks?

This paper belongs to a series in which we use polyacrylamide hydrogels as a model system to study the mechanics of highly elastic polymer networks (Hassan et al., 2022; Kim et al., 2022; Liu et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2021a; Yang et al., 2019).

What are polyacrylamide hydrogels?

Polyacrylamide hydrogels are commonly synthesized in academic and industrial labs, and have found extensive applications in biology, agriculture, and medicine (Caulfield et al., 2002).

What is the fractocohesive length of a polyacrylamide hydrogel?

A representative value of the fractocohesive length of a polyacrylamide hydrogel is 1 mm (Yang et al., 2019). Given that polyacrylamide hydrogels typically contain flaws smaller than, say, 0.1 mm, stress-stretch curves of polyacrylamide hydrogels are flaw-insensitive.

What is the composition of a precursor?

A composition of a precursor is characterized by the water-to-monomer molar ratio W and the crosslinker-to-monomer molar ratio C. The polymer content of the hydrogel is ϕ. Four series of samples are synthesized.