Living anionic polymerization of (meth)acrylic esters: New mechanistic concepts and resulting materials

As an illustration of the frantic development of (meth)acrylic esters anionic polymerization during the last decade, three significant breakthroughs will be presented and analyzed: - extension of the LAP (ligated anionic polymerization) concept to the practical synthesis of both high iso- or syndio high MW PMMA; - the production of perfect hydrocarbon gels from tailored PMMA-polybutadiene-PMMA triblock copolymers; - the use of reactivity boosters allowing to climb back up the nucleophilic reactivity scale, i.e. initiating styrene, dienes and (meth)acrylates polymerization with alcoholates and silanolates.