Photoinitiated polymerizations are increasingly being used to synthesize new materials with defined molecular weight and dispersity. The development of oxygen tolerant photoinduced electron/energy transfer reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (PET-RAFT) polymerization enables these reactions to be done in well plates, thus providing high-throughput synthesis of combinatorial polymer libraries. In addition, polymer conversion has been shown to correlate with the fluorescence of each sample and allows for online monitoring of reaction kinetics. Since reaction kinetics should ideally be maintained for individual samples throughout the well plate, a custom lightbox with multiplexed LEDs that works in tandem with Python and an online spectrophotometer was designed to allow for spatial and temporal control of each PET-RAFT reaction via fluorescence tracking (<b>Figure 1)</b>. This platform allows us to integrate a suite of robotics to enable fully automated synthesis of complex copolymers within a self-driving lab. Also, the addition of machine learning protocols will also allow for the fast and efficient directed evolution of polymers with tailored characteristics.

Lightbox control of photoinitiated polymerizations in well plates

ACS Spring 2022

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