Abstract
Radical polymerization proceeds via highly reactive neutral radical growing species and has been investigated from various aspects for many years. It is also one of the most common and widely employed polymerizations in industy due to the high reactivity and applicability as well as the tolerance to polar compounds like water. In addition, recent years witnessed great developments in living radical polymerization, which has now been emplyed for the precision polymer synthesis. This review covers fundamental aspects in conventional radical polymerizations including polymerizable monomers, mechanisms like initiation, propagation, termination and chain transfers, and copolymerizations in addition to the recent advances in living radical polymerizations and stereospecific radical polymerizations.
