Blocked Phosphates as Photolatent Catalysts for Dynamic Photopolymer Networks

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

External Organisational units

  • Technische Universität Graz
  • Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH

Abstract

While latent catalysts are a well-established strategy for initiating and controlling the rate of polymerization reactions, their use in dynamic polymer networks is still in its infancy. The ideal latent catalyst should be thermally stable and release a highly active species in response to an external trigger. Here, we have synthesized a temperature resistant (>200 °C) organic phosphate with a photolabile o-nitrobenzyl protecting group that can be cleaved by UV light. Introduced in a visible light curable thiol-click photopolymer, the sequence-dependent λ-orthogonality of the curing and cleavage enables an efficient network formation at 451 nm, without premature release of the catalyst. Once cured, irradiation at 372 nm spatiotemporally activates the phosphate, which catalyzes transesterifications at elevated temperature. The formed catalyst has no effect on the thermal stability of the polymeric network and allows the activation of bond exchange reactions in selected domains of printed 3D objects.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere202215525
Number of pages5
JournalAngewandte Chemie - International Edition
Volume62.2022
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 24 Nov 2022