Photoredox catalysis has brought to light exciting avenues for the spatiotemporally controlled synthesis and modification of polymers. In these reactions, a photoexcited transition-metal or organic dye (photocatalyst) performs single-electron transfer to oxidize or reduce the polymer, thus activating the polymer for bond-forming reactions. Alternatively, one can envisage that the polymer can be directly photoexcited, enabling a single-electron transfer event from a non-photoactive catalyst or reagent with the appropriate redox potential. Since different wavelengths of light deliver different amounts of energy, selectivity can be obtained in the presence of multiple functional groups or substrates with different absorption cross sections by using narrow-bandwidth light sources (e.g. light-emitting diodes). We will describe our efforts to apply this strategy towards the development of controlled polymerizations mediated by visible light.

Selective activation by substrate photoexcitation for polymer synthesis

254th National Meeting (2017)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.