Using CuSO4-cyclohexanone redox as initiator,the radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate was briefly investigated.The results show that the polymerization of methyl methacrylate could proceed under the molar ratio of CuSO4 to cyclohexanone from 1∶5 to 1∶200 and the reaction temperature of 70 ℃～90 ℃.The polymer achieves high molecular weight at low conversion and remains a constant during the whole reaction processing,maintains the characteristic of the conventional radical polymerization.The reverse atom transfer radical polymerization of MMA initiated by CuSO4-cyclohexanone redox was also investigated.The molecular weight of polymer increases with the monomer conversion,but the controllability is rather limited.The mechanism was assumed to be that the alpha-CH2-of cyclohexanone(Cα-H) was oxidized to radical-C·H-(Cα·) by Cu2+,which then initiated the chain propagation.The results imply that the cyclohexanone cannot be used as the solvent in the radical polymerization of electron-deficient vinyl momomers such as acrylates and acrylamides in the presence of oxidizing agents.