NMR investigations of polytrifluoroethylene (PTrFE) synthesized by RAFT

Trifluoroethylene (TrFE) is a relatively rare fluorinated monomer mainly used in copolymerisation with vinylidene fluoride (VDF) to prepare ferroelectric materials. While VDF homopolymerisation has been relatively well studied, that of TrFE is still poorly understood and the reversible deactivation radical polymerisation of this monomer has never been studied in depth. To better understand the RAFT polymerisation of TrFE, accurate assignments of PTrFE synthesized by RAFT polymerisation are necessary. Thus, this article reports detailed 19F, 1H and 13C 1D and 2D experiments carried out to determine and assign the different NMR chemical shifts and splitting patterns of the α- and ω-chain ends of PTrFE synthesized by RAFT polymerisation.