In recent years, interest in degradable polymers has risen greatly due to the concerns of plastic waste in the environment and has inspired our investigation into degradable thiol-ene materials. Fully degradable thiol-ene thermosets were synthesized using hydrolyzable monomers in combination with a multifunctional thiol and photoinitiator. A library of different acyclic ketal-based monomers was synthesized using a simple ketalization reaction between various carbonyl containing compounds and alkene functionalized alcohols. All samples were easily cured after only seconds of exposure to UV light. Mass loss vs. time was determined gravimetrically for all thermosets. For each composition, samples were removed from their solution at specific degradation times, lyophilized and weighed. The network degradation rates in acidic solutions were found to be highly tunable based on the stability of ketal building blocks used to construct each monomer.

Degradable poly(β-thioether ester ketal) thermosets: Incorporating hydrolyzable acyclic ketal crosslinks to achieve tunable network dissolution

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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