Novel, facile, and stable mediating agent (dithiobenzoic copper(Il)) combining atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and reversible addition fragmentation transfer (RAFT) characteristics was firstly designed by replacing the halogen of ATRP metal catalyst with thiocarbonyl carboxylic group of RAF agent. As two kinds of mediating agents (ATRP activator and RAF agent) may be formed in situ during the polymerization process, the polymerization of various methacrylates can be controlled in presence of a high molar ratio of radical initiator to catalyst. Furthermore, the resultant polymer possessed dithiobenzoate chain-end functional group, which was confirmed by H-1 NMR analyses and chain-extension reaction. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd.