The activation and deactivation of the chain-transfer agent were achieved by oxygen initiation and regulation with triethylborane under ambient temperature and atmosphere. The autoxidation of triethylborane overcame the oxygen inhibition and produced initiating radicals that selectively activate the chain-transfer agent for the chain growth or deactivate the active chain-end of polymer in controlled radical polymerization. Both activation and deactivation were highly efficient with broad scope for various polymers with different chain-transfer agents in both organic and aqueous systems. Oxygen molecule was particularly used as an external regulator to initiate and achieve the temporal control of both activation and deactivation by simply feeding the air.

链转移剂的活化和失活是通过在环境温度和气氛下用三乙基硼烷进行氧引发和调节来实现的。三乙基硼烷的自氧化克服了氧的抑制作用，并产生了引发自由基，这些自由基选择性地活化了链转移剂以促进链增长，或使受控的自由基聚合中的聚合物的活性链末端失活。对于有机和水性体系中具有不同链转移剂的各种聚合物，活化和失活都具有很高的效率。氧分子特别用作外部调节剂，可通过简单地供入空气来启动和实现活化和失活的时间控制。