Microscale manipulation of bond exchange reactions in photocurable vitrimers with a covalently attachable photoacid generator.

ABSTRACT: Vitrimers are polymer networks with covalent bonds that undergo reversible exchange reactions and rearrange their topology in response to an external stimulus. The temperature-dependent change in viscoelastic properties is conveniently adjusted by selected catalysts. In these thermo-activated systems, the lack in spatial control can be overcome by using photolatent catalysts. Herein, we advance this concept to locally manipulate bond exchange reactions on a single digit microscale level. For this, we synthetize a linkable non-ionic photoacid generator, which is covalently attached to a thiol-click photopolymer. UV induced deprotection of the photoacid yields a strong immobilized sulfonic acid species, which is able to efficiently catalyze transesterification reactions. Covalent attachment

SUBMITTER: Korotkov R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11404296 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature