The competitiveness of the combination and disproportionation reactions between a 1-phenylpropyl radical, standing for a growing polystyryl macroradical, and a 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy (TEMPO) radical in the nitroxide-mediated free-radical polymerization of styrene was quantitatively evaluated by the study of the transition geometry and the potential energy profiles for the competing reactions with the use of quantum-mechanical calculations at the density functional theory (DFT) UB3-LYP/6-311+G(3df, 2p)//(unrestricted) Austin Model 1 level of theory. The search for transition geometries resulted in six and two transition structures for the radical combination and disproportionation reactions, respectively. The former transition structures, mainly differing in the out-of-plane angle of the N-O bond in the transition structure TEMPO molecule, were correlated with the activation energy, which was determined to be in the range of 8.4-19.4 kcal mol(-1) from a single-point calculation at the DFT UB3-LYP/6-311+G(3df, 2p)//unrestricted Austin Model 1 level. The calculated activation energy for the disproportionation reaction was less favorable by a value of more than 30 kcal mol-1 in comparison with that for the combination reaction. The approximate barrier difference for the TEMPO addition and disproportionation reaction was slightly smaller for the styrene polymerization system than for the acrylonitrile polymerization system, thus indicating that a beta-proton abstraction through a TEMPO radical from the polymer backbone could diminish control over the radical polymerization of styrene with the nitroxide even more than in the latter system. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.