Abstract
Cobalt mediated radical polymerization (CMRP) of methyl acrylate was performed with CoII(salen), CoII(H2O)2(dmgBF2)2, CoII(salen-NO2),and CoII(salen-OMe) at 60 °C and its CoII/CoIII equilibrium constant have been measured by using UV-vis spectroscopy to determine the concentration of cobalt species ([CoII] and [CoIII-P]) and the first order kinetic plots to obtain the radical concentration ([P•]). With the increasing information of Keq values in different CMRP systems, a linear correlation between the CoII/CoIII reduction potential (E1/2) and log(Keq) was discovered. The connection of reduction potential, equilibrium constant, and control mechanism would contribute to the understanding of CMRP process.