External stimuli regulated surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization

Surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) has become an indispensable tool for tailoring of structures and properties of the polymer/inorganic and polymer/organic surfaces. However, traditional SI-ATRP always suffers from limitations such as rigorous synthetic protocols, heavy consumption of monomers and limited ability to control the polymerization process. Recently, many efforts have been taken to dramatically increase the scope of living radical polymerization through the development of new strategies to regulate the activation and deactivation steps by using a wide range of external stimuli, including electrochemistry, light and chemical reagent. We expect that this review will present a broad introduction to the field of the SI-ATRP research.