About this family
An acrylate repeat unit is about as simple as a vinyl polymer gets: a two-carbon backbone with an ester hanging off every other carbon, –CH2–CH(CO2R)–. Everything that distinguishes one acrylate from the next is in R, and the range that single substituent covers is remarkable. The same backbone gives you a hard coating resin, a pressure-sensitive adhesive that tacks at room temperature, a water-soluble thickener, a fluorinated release layer, and a superabsorbent.
The defining structural fact is what an acrylate lacks. Replace the hydrogen on the substituted backbone carbon with a methyl group and you have a methacrylate, and the glass transition jumps by roughly eighty to a hundred degrees – poly(methyl acrylate) sits at 10 °C while poly(methyl methacrylate) sits at 105 °C. That extra methyl crowds the backbone and freezes out the rotation that lets an acrylate chain move. It is the single largest structure–property lever in the acrylic family, and it is why formulators reach for acrylates when they want something soft and methacrylates when they want something rigid.
What sets the properties
Within the acrylates, the ester group is the tuning knob, and it works in two opposing directions. Lengthening a linear alkyl ester plasticises the polymer internally: the side chain holds neighbouring backbones apart and lowers Tg steeply, which is the trip from poly(methyl acrylate) at 10 °C down to poly(ethyl acrylate) at −24 °C and onward to the butyl and 2-ethylhexyl esters that make up most adhesive formulations. Keep going, though, and the trend reverses: once the side chain is long enough to pack against its neighbours it begins to crystallise on its own, and the polymer stiffens again for an entirely different reason. Branching in the ester works the other way from length – a tert-butyl ester is much stiffer than the n-butyl isomer of identical molecular weight.
Acrylates also behave differently from methacrylates in the reactor, which matters if you are trying to control one. The propagating radical on an acrylate is secondary rather than tertiary, so it is more reactive and less stable: propagation is fast, but the same radical readily abstracts a hydrogen from its own backbone, forming a mid-chain radical that goes on to give short-chain branches and, eventually, β-scission. That backbiting is strongly temperature-dependent and is the usual explanation when an acrylate polymerisation gives a broader distribution or a lower-than-expected molecular weight at high temperature.
All 81 in the library
Sorted by parent name, ignoring the leading "poly" and any locants – so poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) files under H. 76 of the 81 carry a note, and every one is searchable by drawn structure on the structure search page. 5 have a CAS registry number for the polymer; most specialty polymers have never been assigned one, and the number you find in a catalogue is usually the monomer's, which is why the field is blank rather than borrowed here.
A
Poly(acrylamide) crosslinked gel
Polyacrylamide as a network rather than a soluble chain, tied together by a few percent of a bis-acrylamide that carries two vinyl groups and so ends up in two chains at once. The repeat unit is unchanged; the crosslink ratio is what sets the pore size, which is the entire basis of using these gels to sieve proteins and nucleic acids by size.
Poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid)
A strong polyacid whose sulfonate stays ionised at any pH and, crucially, tolerates hard brine - the calcium that precipitates poly(acrylic acid) leaves it alone. That is why it is the polyelectrolyte used in oilfield fluids, and the quaternary carbon beside the amide protects the linkage from the hydrolysis that degrades polyacrylamide.
Acrylic rubber
An acrylate elastomer built for hot oil: the saturated backbone resists oxidation at temperatures that destroy nitrile rubber, and the polar ester resists swelling in hydrocarbon. A small fraction of a reactive comonomer provides the cure sites, since acrylates offer none. It is the standard for engine and transmission seals, where its poor water resistance is not a problem. Not drawn: the cure-site monomer is a small random fraction.
Poly(N-acryloylmorpholine)
A tertiary acrylamide with an ether in the ring, giving a polymer that is water-soluble at every temperature - no cloud point, unlike most of the acrylamide family - and unusually resistant to hydrolysis. That reliability makes it a PEG alternative for bioconjugation and the polar anchoring block in the bottlebrush friction modifiers.
Poly(2-(acryloyloxy)ethyl trimethylammonium chloride)
The acrylate cationic monomer of water treatment. Its ester link hydrolyses far faster than the methacrylate at high pH, which limits the shelf life of the flocculant solutions made from it.
B
Poly(behenyl acrylate)
The C22 comb acrylate, the longest side chain in common commercial use. Its behaviour is essentially that of crystalline paraffin tethered to a flexible backbone.
Poly(benzyl acrylate)
The methylene spacer lets the ring rotate freely, so this is much softer than poly(phenyl acrylate) despite carrying the same aromatic group.
Bottlebrush oil-additive friction modifier
A bottlebrush designed to do in an oil what a surface-grafted brush does in water. The grafted poly(lauryl acrylate) part dissolves in the oil and stands away from the surface; a short polar poly(4-acryloylmorpholine) block anchors the molecule to the metal, so the polymer builds its own brush layer wherever the surfaces meet rather than needing to be grafted there. RAFT polymerisation let grafting density and the position of the anchor along the chain be varied independently, which is the point - the architecture, not the chemistry, is the variable. Friction coefficients fell by about half at low additive levels. Worth the trouble given that roughly a fifth of the world's energy goes on overcoming friction. Kerr, Hakkinen and co-workers (Perrier group, Warwick), ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2023, 15, 48574.
Poly(2-butoxyethyl acrylate)
The ether oxygen keeps the polymer polar while the butyl tail keeps it soft - a combination used in adhesives that must wet low-energy surfaces.
Poly(butyl acrylate)
Poly(sec-butyl acrylate)
Branched at the carbon bearing the ester oxygen, which restricts ester rotation directly and gives the highest Tg of the three butyl acrylate isomers.
Poly(tert-butyl acrylate)
Poly(N-tert-butylacrylamide)
The hydrophobic member of the acrylamide family, insoluble in water where the isopropyl version dissolves below 32 C. Copolymerised with N-isopropylacrylamide it pulls the cloud point down in a nearly linear way, which is the standard method for tuning a thermoresponsive gel to body temperature rather than to 32 C.
Poly(4-tert-butylcyclohexyl acrylate)
A bulky cycloaliphatic acrylate used in radiation-curable coatings where a high Tg is wanted without an aromatic ring.
C
Carbomer
Poly(acrylic acid) lightly crosslinked into a microgel, and the thickener in most clear gels on a pharmacy shelf. Dry it is a tight coil; neutralise it and the carboxylates repel each other so the particle swells a thousandfold, turning a one-percent dispersion into a gel that holds its shape. The transition is entirely electrostatic - add salt and it collapses again. A network, so undrawn.
Poly(2-carboxyethyl acrylate)
A carboxylic acid held off the backbone by an ester spacer rather than attached directly as in acrylic acid. The distance matters for adhesion: the acid can reach a metal oxide surface without the chain having to distort, which is why small amounts of it are added to pressure-sensitive adhesives to improve their grip on steel.
Poly(2-chloroethyl acrylate)
A polar, reactive acrylate; the chloroethyl group also raises the refractive index over the plain alkyl esters.
Poly(2-cyanoethyl acrylate)
The nitrile gives a high dielectric constant, which is what cyanoethyl-substituted polymers are made for - dielectric layers and electrolyte binders.
Poly(cyclohexyl acrylate)
A saturated ring on the ester, which raises the glass transition well above the linear acrylates without the aromaticity that would raise the refractive index. That combination - stiff but optically ordinary and UV-transparent - is what makes cycloaliphatic esters useful in coatings meant to stay clear outdoors.
Poly(cyclohexylmethyl acrylate)
The methylene spacer decouples the cyclohexane ring from the backbone, so this is softer than poly(cyclohexyl acrylate) despite the same ring.
Poly(cyclopentyl acrylate)
A cycloaliphatic acrylate; the ring raises Tg over the linear C5 ester while keeping the polymer aliphatic and optically clear.
D
Poly(decyl acrylate)
Long-chain acrylate used as a comonomer where oil compatibility matters more than adhesion.
Poly(diacetone acrylamide)
The ketone on this monomer is the half of the pair that lets a water-based paint crosslink as it dries: adipic dihydrazide in the same can cannot reach the ketone while the polymer is inside a latex particle, but once the water leaves and the particles coalesce the hydrazone forms and the film becomes insoluble. Ambient cure with no catalyst and no isocyanate.
Poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide)
A thermoresponsive polymer that collapses on heating like poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) but has no N-H at all. That matters: PNIPAM's amide hydrogen lets it hydrogen-bond to itself and to surfaces, which shows up as hysteresis on cooling and as unwanted protein adhesion. With both hydrogens replaced by ethyls, the transition is sharper and more reversible, at the cost of a cloud point that sits a few degrees lower.
Poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethyl acrylate)
The acrylate version of the standard cationic methacrylate, and it does something the methacrylate does not: the ester hydrolyses steadily in water, shedding the amine and turning the polycation into poly(acrylic acid). A gene delivery vehicle that self-destructs on a timer, releasing its cargo without needing any trigger.
Poly(3-(dimethylamino)propyl acrylate)
A cationic acrylate used in flocculants and hair-care polymers, where the tertiary amine is quaternised after polymerisation.
E
Poly(2-(2-ethoxyethoxy)ethyl acrylate)
A diethylene glycol monoether acrylate. Two ether oxygens make it a reactive diluent that lowers viscosity in UV-curable formulations without the skin irritation of the short-chain esters.
Poly(2-ethoxyethyl acrylate)
A soft, polar acrylate used where a low Tg has to come with solvent resistance that a plain alkyl ester cannot give.
Poly(ethyl acrylate)
Poly(ethyl alpha-chloroacrylate)
The alpha-chloro acrylates are far more sensitive to the electron beam than their methacrylate analogues, which is what put poly(alpha-chloroacrylate) esters into electron-beam resists.
Ethylene acrylic elastomer (AEM)
Sits between acrylic rubber and nitrile in both temperature range and price, and is the usual choice for turbocharger hose and engine mounts. The ethylene gives low-temperature flexibility the pure acrylate lacks. Undrawn: a random terpolymer defined by its monomer ratio.
Poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate network
PEG capped at both ends with acrylates, so light and a photoinitiator turn a solution into a hydrogel in seconds - which is why it is the default matrix for encapsulating cells and for stereolithography of soft parts. Mesh size, and therefore what diffuses through, is set by the molar mass of the PEG between crosslinks. The acrylate junctions themselves do not degrade, so a fully resorbable version needs ester or peptide segments built in. Not drawn: a network with no repeat unit.
Poly(2-ethylhexyl acrylate)
F
Poly(furfuryl acrylate)
A bio-based acrylate from furfuryl alcohol. The furan ring is also a diene: it undergoes reversible Diels-Alder addition to maleimides, which is the basis of the self-healing and reworkable networks these polymers are studied for.
G
Poly(glycidyl acrylate)
The acrylate analogue of poly(glycidyl methacrylate). The pendant epoxide is the reactive handle - it opens with amines, thiols and acids - but the more mobile acrylate backbone makes the ring more prone to premature reaction during storage.
H
Poly(heptyl acrylate)
A member of the n-alkyl acrylate series rarely used alone; its value is in mapping the side-chain-length dependence of Tg between hexyl and octyl.
Poly(hexadecyl acrylate)
The C16 comb acrylate. Its side-chain melting point sits near room temperature, which is why these polymers are used as phase-change and shape-memory components.
Poly(hexafluoroisopropyl acrylate)
Two trifluoromethyl groups on the ester carbon give a very low refractive index and a strongly acidic alpha C-H, the feature exploited in fluorinated photoresists.
Poly(hexyl acrylate)
A soft, tacky acrylate used to lower the Tg of adhesive copolymers without the branched structure of 2-ethylhexyl acrylate.
Poly(2-hydroxybutyl acrylate)
A hydroxy acrylate with a secondary hydroxyl, which reacts more slowly with isocyanates than the primary-hydroxyl monomers and so gives a longer pot life.
Poly(4-hydroxybutyl acrylate)
A hydroxy-functional acrylate with a four-carbon spacer, which keeps the hydroxyl far enough from the ester to resist the transesterification that shortens the shelf life of 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate.
Poly(N-hydroxyethyl acrylamide)
An acrylamide carrying both an amide and a free hydroxyl, so it hydrogen-bonds to water at two points per repeat and resists protein adsorption about as well as PEG does. Unlike polyacrylamide it carries no primary amide, so it cannot hydrolyse to acrylic acid and drift charged over time - the failure that limits polyacrylamide coatings.
Poly(2-hydroxyethyl acrylate)
The acrylate twin of the hydrogel standard poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate). Losing the alpha-methyl drops the glass transition far below room temperature, so where the methacrylate gives a firm hydrogel this gives a soft, tacky one - the same hydroxyl chemistry and water uptake, a completely different mechanical result. A reminder that in the acrylate/methacrylate pairs the methyl group, not the ester, sets the stiffness.
Poly(hydroxypropyl acrylate)
An acrylate with a secondary alcohol on every repeat, used to build the hydroxyl functionality that a two-pack isocyanate coating later crosslinks. The methyl next to the alcohol slows that reaction relative to the hydroxyethyl version, which is the point: it buys pot life without giving up crosslink density.
I
Poly(isoamyl acrylate)
The branched C5 acrylate; branching keeps Tg above the n-pentyl isomer while retaining most of its softness.
Poly(isobornyl acrylate)
The acrylate version of the same terpene cage, glassy near 90 C where an ordinary acrylate would be a rubber at room temperature. It is the standard hardening monomer in UV-curable coatings and inks, where its low volatility and low shrinkage matter as much as the temperature it buys.
Poly(isobutyl acrylate)
The branched C4 acrylate. Branching one carbon out from the ester oxygen costs less mobility than branching at it, so this sits between n-butyl and sec-butyl acrylate in Tg.
Poly(2-isocyanatoethyl acrylate)
The acrylate isocyanate, used to graft acrylic backbones onto hydroxyl-functional polymers and surfaces in one step.
Poly(isopropyl acrylate)
The ester isomer of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), with oxygen where the amide nitrogen sits. It is thermoresponsive too, but the loss of the amide's hydrogen bonding drops the transition and makes it far less sharp - a direct measure of how much of PNIPAM's behaviour comes from the amide rather than the isopropyl group.
Poly(isopropyl cyanoacrylate)
A cyanoacrylate adhesive polymer. The two electron-withdrawing groups on the same carbon make the monomer polymerise anionically on contact with trace surface water - no initiator needed.
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid)
The standard way to move PNIPAM's transition where it is wanted. Adding a few percent of acrylic acid raises the cloud point above 37 C and makes it pH-dependent, so a gel can be built that collapses only when both warm and acidic - the combination found in a tumour but not in healthy tissue. The comonomer fraction is the tuning knob. Not drawn: the ratio is the design.
L
Poly(lauryl acrylate)
An acrylate soluble in hydrocarbons rather than water, with a glass transition far below room temperature. It is the oil-soluble grafted segment of bottlebrush friction modifiers and the stabilising block for polymerisations run in alkanes, where a PEG-like block would simply precipitate.
M
Poly(2-methoxyethyl acrylate)
One of the least thrombogenic synthetic surfaces known, and used to coat cardiopulmonary bypass circuits. The explanation is a population of water molecules that are neither bulk nor tightly bound - intermediate water, which freezes only on cooling well below zero - and blood proteins appear not to denature against it. Neither more nor less hydrophilic polymers show the effect.
Poly(methyl 2-fluoroacrylate)
Replacing the alpha-methyl of PMMA with fluorine raises Tg and lowers the refractive index; the polymer is used as optical fibre cladding.
Poly(methyl acrylate)
Poly(methyl alpha-chloroacrylate)
PMMA with chlorine in place of the alpha-methyl, which raises the glass transition to about 145 C and the refractive index with it. It was used as an electron-beam resist because the C-Cl bond breaks cleanly under the beam and the chain scission is more efficient than PMMA's - a faster resist at the same resolution.
Poly(2-methylbutyl acrylate)
A branched C5 acrylate whose stereocentre in the ester makes it a common substrate for studies of side-chain chirality in acrylic polymers.
N
Poly(N,N'-methylenebisacrylamide)
The crosslinker rather than a polymer in its own right: two acrylamides joined by a methylene bridge, so each molecule ties two growing chains together. Its amide linkages make it hydrolysable in strong base, which is how a polyacrylamide gel can be dissolved to recover what was separated in it. Not drawn: it functions as a junction, not a repeat unit.
Poly(2-naphthyl acrylate)
A fluorescent aryl acrylate; naphthyl side groups on a flexible backbone form intramolecular excimers, making these polymers standard probes for chain conformation.
Poly(neopentyl acrylate)
The quaternary carbon in the ester blocks side-chain motion, so this is the stiffest of the C5 acrylate isomers.
Poly(nonyl acrylate)
Around the Tg minimum for n-alkyl acrylates; beyond this length side-chain association begins to stiffen the material again.
O
Poly(octadecyl acrylate)
The acrylate counterpart to stearyl methacrylate, and softer for the usual reason - no alpha-methyl on the backbone. The side chains still crystallise and melt near 50 C, so the material is a shape-memory polymer in its own right: deform it warm, cool to set the side-chain crystals, and it holds the shape until reheated.
Poly(octyl acrylate)
The linear isomer of the far more common 2-ethylhexyl acrylate. The straight chain packs better, so the linear polymer has the higher Tg of the two despite identical composition.
P
Poly(pentafluorophenyl acrylate)
The acrylate analogue of the activated-ester workhorse, more reactive towards amines than the methacrylate because the backbone is less hindered.
Poly(pentyl acrylate)
One methylene past poly(butyl acrylate), the workhorse of pressure-sensitive adhesives; the extra carbon softens the polymer and lowers its Tg further.
Poly(perfluorooctylethyl acrylate)
The side chains crystallise into a comb of perfluorinated rods standing perpendicular to the surface, which is what gives a surface energy near 10 millinewtons per metre - low enough to repel oil as well as water. It was the active ingredient of stain-repellent textile finishes until the long perfluoroalkyl chain was found to degrade to PFOA and the industry moved to six-carbon versions.
Poly(2-phenoxyethyl acrylate)
A high-refractive-index reactive diluent for UV-curable coatings and optical adhesives, where its low viscosity and slow evaporation are as useful as the aromatic ring.
Poly(phenyl acrylate)
The acrylate analogue of poly(phenyl methacrylate). Without the alpha-methyl the backbone is far more mobile, so Tg falls by roughly a hundred degrees.
Poly(propargyl acrylate)
The acrylate clickable partner; used to functionalise surfaces and particles after polymerisation rather than before.
Poly(propyl acrylate)
A term between the ethyl and butyl acrylates, filling in the series whose glass transitions fall steadily with ester length - about -37 C here. The n-alkyl acrylates are the cleanest available demonstration of internal plasticisation, because nothing changes between members except the number of methylenes.
Poly(2-propylheptyl acrylate)
A branched C10 acrylate developed as a lower-volatility replacement for 2-ethylhexyl acrylate in adhesive formulations.
S
Poly(sodium acrylate)
Poly(acrylic acid) neutralised and lightly crosslinked, and the material in every disposable nappy - it holds hundreds of times its weight in water because the fixed carboxylates repel one another and draw water in osmotically until the network's elasticity stops it. Salt collapses it, which is why the absorbency quoted for pure water is several times what it manages with urine. Not drawn: a crosslinked network with no repeat unit.
Poly(N-succinimidyl acrylate)
The acrylate activated ester, more reactive and correspondingly more moisture-sensitive than the methacrylate.
Poly(sulfobetaine acrylamide)
Zwitterionic polymers dissolve better in salt water than in pure water - the opposite of every ordinary polyelectrolyte - because added salt screens the attraction between a chain's own opposite charges. The upper critical solution temperature that follows is the basis for antifouling coatings that release accumulated fouling when the temperature or salinity changes.
Poly(3-sulfopropyl acrylate)
The acrylate partner of the sulfopropyl methacrylate already in this library; used in ion-exchange membranes and as the anionic block in polyelectrolyte complexes.
T
Poly(tetradecyl acrylate)
Side-chain crystallisation gives this polymer a melting transition well above the backbone Tg - the property exploited in wax-crystal modifiers.
Poly(tetrahydrofurfuryl acrylate)
A low-viscosity reactive diluent for UV-curable coatings; the tetrahydrofuran ring gives polarity and adhesion without an aromatic group.
Poly(tridecyl acrylate)
A comb acrylate whose side chains are long enough to order; branched isotridecyl grades are used where that ordering is unwanted.
Poly(trifluoroethyl acrylate)
Three fluorines are enough to drop the refractive index to about 1.41 and to make the polymer transparent well into the infrared, where the C-H overtones of an ordinary acrylate absorb. It is used as the low-index cladding in polymer waveguides and as a soft, low-surface-energy block in fluorinated elastomers.
Poly(3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl acrylate)
The acrylate coupling agent; the more flexible backbone gives a tougher interphase than the methacrylate where the bond line must absorb strain.
Poly(3,5,5-trimethylhexyl acrylate)
A heavily branched C9 ester. The branches prevent any side-chain ordering, so the polymer stays amorphous and tacky where a linear C9 acrylate would begin to stiffen.