Chapter 2: Radical Polymerization

Free-radical polymerization is a popular polymerization technique in both industry and research laboratories. This is attributed to the combined virtues of versatility, synthetic ease and compatibility with a wide variety of functional groups, coupled with its tolerance to water and protic media. These features lead to the development of emulsion and suspension techniques, which greatly simplifies the experimental setup and hence commercial adoption. This chapter deals with microwave-assisted free-radical homopolymerization, copolymerization, emulsion polymerizations, crosslinking reactions, preparation of composite materials and controlled radical polymerizations and their merits over polymerization reactions done by conventional heating techniques.