Controlled polymerization of N-n-propylacrylamide was achieved by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) in a N

N-dimethylformamide-water mixture (50 vol%) at room temperature with methyl 2-chloropropinonate as initiator and CuCl/tris(2-dimethylaminoethyl)amine as the catalytic system in a ratio of 1︰1︰1. High molecular weight homopolymers (up to 3.7 × 104) with narrow molecular weight distribution (less than 1.2) were obtained. The living character of the polymerization was further demonstrated by self-blocking experiment. An inverse molecular weight dependence of the cloud point of narrow-dispersed poly(N-n-propylacrylamide) aqueous solution was determined by turbidimetry and differential scanning calorimetry

especially for the low molecular weight samples.