High-throughput experimentation in polymer chemistry

Progress in automated polymerization and sample preparation by utilizing an automated parallel synthesizer was prospected on the following items: 1) Reproducibility of conversion and molecular weight distribution by atom transfer radical polymerization of PMMA,2) effects of various metals, ligands, initiators and solvents on molecular weight and molecular weight distribution, etc. of the above PMMA, 3) effects of initiators on reaction rate, etc. at living cationic ring-opening polymerization of 2-oxazoline with a substituent at 2-position, 4) emulsion polymerization of styrene and vinyl acetate, 5) MS sample preparation of MALDI-TOF. Well-known polymerization will be automated, but high viscosity systems and controlled anionic polymerization are still future themes. It is also necessary to develop robots. Experiment design, modeling and creation of informatics of material are expected