Since tertiary amines （Cα-H） can be oxidized by peroxides and transition metal cations in high oxidation states into Ca2＋ radicals to initiate vinylic polymerizations of methacrylates, Cu2＋ and 2-（N,N-dimethylamino）ethyl methacrylate （DMAEMA） form a polymerizable redox initiating pair, in which DMAEMA serves as an intrinsically reducing inimer. CuSOa-catalyzed aqueous self-initiated radical polymerizations of DMAEMA were successfully performed at ambient temperature via a continuous Cu2＋-tertiary amine redox initiation based on catalyst regeneration in the presence of O2. The polymerization kinetics was monitored by gas chromatography and the structure of PDMAEMA was characterized by gel- permeation chromatography, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, laser light scattering and online intrinsic-viscosity analysis. Both the monomer conversion and the molecular weight of PDMAEMA increase with the reaction while the molecular weight distribution maintains rather broad, as the Cu2＋-DMAEMA redox-initiation leads to linear PDMAEMA chains with terminal methacryloxyl moieties, and the Cu2＋-PDMAEMA redox-initiation results in branched chains. The branched topology forms and develops only for the high-MW components of the PDMAEMA. Our results provide a facile strategy to prepare branched polymers from such commercially available intrinsically reducing inimers using a negligible concentration of regenerative air-stable catalysts.
