Living Radical Polymerization: RAFT/ATRP vs Conventional Free-Radical (2D)

A batch of 36 polymer chains grows in real time under either a reversible-deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP — the mechanism shared by ATRP and RAFT) or a conventional free-radical mechanism, drawn here as rising bead columns on a pannable 2D grid. In RDRP mode chains cycle between active and dormant states thousands of times, keeping their lengths nearly identical and driving the dispersity Đ toward 1. In conventional mode chains initiate at scattered times and terminate irreversibly by radical–radical combination, producing the broad Flory most-probable distribution. A live chain-length histogram and a Đ/conversion strip-chart update every tick alongside the grid so the two mechanisms can be compared side by side.