Modern methods of controlled radical polymerization for obtaining branched polymers of acrylamide, acrylic acid and (met)acrylates

A search and analysis has been carried out of English-language 2005–2020 scientific literature devoted to methods of obtaining branched (co)polymers of acrylamide, acrylic acid and (met)acrylates in order to obtain novel materials with valuable properties. It has been found that modern methods of controlled radical polymerization are mainly used for this purpose, namely, atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP), reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT) and group transfer polymerization (GTP). In most cases, original synthesized compounds were the chain transfer agents in RAFT. Depending on the order of synthesis, a distinction is made between the “core–arms” and “arms–core” approaches. The prospects of using branched polymers of acrylamide, acrylic acid and (met)acrylates for bioconjugation, surface immobilization, tissue engineering, oil production enhancement, and flocculation are estimated.