Photopolymerization systems for controlled/living radical polymerization (CLRP) have often been dependent on continuous irradiation to sustain radical production. Although this approach offers an opportunity to impose spatial and temporal control, it remains an energy inefficient process. As energy storage for CLRP remains an unexplored area in polymer chemistry, it may provide an opportunity for designing energy efficient polymerization. In this talk, we present a novel energy storage system which could mediate a CLRP using a very short exposition to visible light. The highlight of this system stems from the fact that irradiation as brief as 5 min allows storage of enough energy to perform continuous polymerization to reach high monomer conversions in the dark. In addition, these aqueous polymerizations do not require nitrogen purging as oxygen is required. Interestingly, the amount of oxygen present in the reaction mixture affects the rate of polymerization as a low concentration of oxygen results in slow polymerization rate. The system was found to be robust and versatile as it is able to accommodate different monomer families (acrylate, acrylamide, and methacrylate) and RAFT agents (dithiobenzoates and trithiocarbonates). Finally, this approach can help to solve one of the major limitations of photopolymerization pertaining to light penetration.

Energy storage for controlled/living radical polymerization

254th National Meeting (2017)

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