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Rise and Fall: Poly(phenyl vinyl ketone) Photopolymerization and Photodegradation under Visible and UV Radiation
Author(s) -
Reeves Jennifer A.,
Allegrezza Michael L.,
Konkolewicz Dominik
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201600623
Subject(s) - photopolymer , photodegradation , photochemistry , visible spectrum , ketone , polymer chemistry , methyl vinyl ketone , materials science , ultraviolet radiation , chemistry , polymer , organic chemistry , polymerization , catalysis , photocatalysis , optoelectronics , composite material , radiochemistry
Vinyl ketone polymers, including phenyl vinyl ketone (PVK), are an important class of polymers due to their ability to degrade upon irradiation with ultraviolet light which makes them useful for a variety of applications. However, traditional radical methods for synthesizing PVK polymers give rise to poor control or are unable to produce block copolymers. This work uses reversible addition‐fragmentation chain transfer polymerization (RAFT) and photochemistry to polymerize PVK. When visible blue radiation of 440 ± 10 nm is used as the light source for the photopolymerization, rapid polymerization and well‐defined polymers are created. This RAFT method uses PVK as both monomer and radical initiator, exciting the PVK monomer by 440 ± 10 nm irradiation to avoid the use of an additional radical initiator. Once the polymer is synthesized, it is stable against degradation by blue light (440 ± 10 nm), but upon exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation (310 ± 20 nm) significant decrease in molecular weight is observed. The degradation is observed for all poly(PVK) materials synthesized.