08916 IUPAC Gold Book - reversible-deactivation radical polymerization 10.1351/goldbook.08916 08916 current initialism: RDRP synonym: controlled reversible-deactivation radical polymerization 1 Chain polymerization, propagated by radicals that are deactivated reversibly, bringing them into active-dormant equilibria of which there might be more than one. The abbreviated term controlled radical polymerization shall be permitted, provided that its context (i.e., the nature of the control) is specified at the first occurrence. Names containing the word 'living' are deprecated. Definition 84 in the kinetics document stipulates that chain termination and irreversible chain transfer must be absent if a polymerization is to be regarded as living. Examples of deprecated terms include living radical polymerization, controlled/living polymerization and quasi-living polymerization. Atom-transfer radical polymerization, reversible-addition-fragmentation chain-transfer polymerization, and stable-radical-mediated polymerization all fall into this polymerization category. When the equilibria are established rapidly compared to the rate of propagation, the process may show many of the observable characteristics associated with living polymerization. One consequence of rapid equilibration is that it may become possible to exert control over the shape of the chain-length distribution, prepare polymers of low dispersity (i.e., polymers with a high degree of uniformity), and extend chains to form block copolymers, the block lengths of which are of low dispersity, by the sequential addition of monomers. Although some termination is inevitably taking place, the equilibrium between the remaining propagating radicals and dormant species is maintained. Atom-transfer radical polymerization https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08924 controlled radical polymerization https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08913 dormant species https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08952 living radical polymerization https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08914 reversible-addition-fragmentation chain-transfer polymerization https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08935 stable-radical-mediated polymerization https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08921 PAC, 2022, 94, 1093. 'Terminology for chain polymerization (IUPAC Recommendations 2021)' on page 1104 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2020-1211) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08916/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08916/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08916/plain Citation: 'reversible-deactivation radical polymerization' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.08916 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-08-04T19:45:16+00:00