Abstract: Zwitterionic copolymers(P(AM DMAPS)) were successfully synthesized in aqueous solution via the atom-transfer radical polymerization(ATRP) between acrylamide(AM) and a homemade zwitterionic monomer of 3-dimethyl(methacryloyloxyethyl) ammonium propane sulfonate(DMAPS) under microwave irradiation(MI) using 2-chloropropionamide as initiator and CuCl/2,2′-bipyridine as catalyst. The effects of microwave power, reaction time and the amount of initiator, catalyst and ligand on the polymerization were studied and compared with those of conventional heating method. Our results showed that the apparent rate constant(Kappp) of copolymerization under microwave radiation with radiation power of 240 W for 1250 s was 4.5 times that of traditional thermal polymerization. The conversion was 40.15% and Mn was 46410. The optimized conditions for copolymerization are as follows:the total monomer concentration is 4.0 mol/L in which the molar fraction of functional monomer DMAPS is 1%, the initiator concentration is 0.015 mol/L, and the catalyst concentration is 0.01 mol/L.

Key words: microwave, atom transfer radical polymerization, acrylamide, copolymerization