A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Use of Pyridinyl Dithioesters and Their <i>N</i>-Oxides as CTAs in the RAFT Polymerization of Styrene. Not the Chronicle of a Failure Foretold
of the dormant radical species intermediate in the RAFT process by the heteroaromatic rings as inferred from the measured reduction potentials of the compounds. Styrene polymerization was actually blocked at very low conversion in the case of the dithioisonicotinate N-oxide, and on the basis of ESR (electronspinresonance) studies it is suggested that in this case the dormant radical may actually act