A team of chemistry and materials science experts from University of California, Santa Barbara and The Dow Chemical Company has created a novel way to overcome one of the major hurdles preventing the widespread use of controlled radical polymerization. In a global polymer industry valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars, a technique called Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization is emerging as a key process for creating well-defined polymers for a vast range of materials, from adhesives to electronics. However, current ATRP methods by design use metal catalysts, a major roadblock to applications for which metal contamination is an issue, such as materials used for biomedical purposes. This new method of radical polymerization doesn’t involve heavy metal catalysts like copper. Their innovative, metal-free ATRP process uses an organic-based photocatalyst — and light as the stimulus for the highly controlled chemical reaction. + Read the full story at http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2015/014740/new-catalyst-process-uses-light-not...