Development and Manipulation of Photoresponsive Polymer Networks Through Light-Mediated Polymerizations

Abstract

The manipulation and tailoring of crosslinked materials to engineer new materials with enhanced properties has been a growing field of interest in the past decade. Recent advances in light-mediated polymerizations such as the use of visible light and photoredox catalysts have propelled the field by providing polymerizations with enhanced spatiotemporal control and increased precision. Until recently the only examples of these network manipulations were performed on bulk gel networks. In this work, a photogrowable nanoscale network (PGNN) capable of experiencing precise manipulations in size and network properties was developed by incorporating photoresponsive trithiocarbonates into the network crosslinks. Produced parent nanonetworks were demonstrated to undergo controlled network expansions to produce daughter networks with increased sizes through light-mediated polymerizations. Additionally, the expanded networks were found to inherit the properties of the newly introduced polymer chains. This photocontrolled growth concept was then adapted to explore the preparation of a second generation of PGNNs, as well as photoresponsive self-assembled materials capable of experiencing polymerization induced changes in morphology