Control over mechanochemical polymer scission by another external stimulus may offer a new avenue to further advance the fields of polymer chemistry, mechanochemistry, and materials science. Herein, we demonstrate that light can regulate the mechanochemical behavior of a designed diarylethene-conjugated Diels–Alder adduct (DAE/DA) that reversibly isomerizes from a weaker open-form to a stronger closed-form under photoirradiation. Pulsed ultrasonication experiments, spectroscopic analyses, and density functional theory calculations support the successful photoregulation of the reactivity of the designed DAE/DA mechanophore, which was incorporated at the mid-chain of a polymer, and indicate that higher force and energy are required to cleave the closed form of the DAE/DA mechanophore relative to the open form. The present photoregulation concept provides an attractive approach toward a new generation of mechanofunctional polymers.

Photoregulation of mechanochemical scission in polymers with a diarylethene-conjugated Diels–Alder adduct

256th National Meeting (2018)

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