Visible Light-Accelerated Photoiniferter Polymerization in Ionic Liquid

Arunjunai R S Santha Kumar; Stephanie Allison-Logan; John R Finnegan; Nikhil K Singha; Muthupandian Ashokkumar; Greg Qiao

doi:10.1021/acsmacrolett.3c00329

Visible Light-Accelerated Photoiniferter Polymerization in Ionic Liquid

ACS Macro Lett. 2023 Aug 15;12(8):1012-1018. doi: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.3c00329. Epub 2023 Jul 10.

Authors

Arunjunai R S Santha Kumar^{1

2

3}, Stephanie Allison-Logan³, John R Finnegan³, Nikhil K Singha¹, Muthupandian Ashokkumar², Greg Qiao³

Affiliations

¹ Rubber Technology Center, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, 721302, WB, India.
² School of Chemistry, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia.
³ Polymer Science Group, Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia.

PMID: 37428477
DOI: 10.1021/acsmacrolett.3c00329

Abstract

The effect of ionic liquids on the reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization mediated by a visible-light-induced photoiniferter mechanism was investigated. N,N-Dimethyl acrylamide was polymerized by photoiniferter polymerization in 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulfate [EMIM][EtSO₄] ionic liquid. We observed a considerable increase in the polymerization rate constants in ionic liquids (ILs), as well as in the mixed solvent of water and the IL, compared to those observed with water alone as the solvent. To demonstrate the robustness of the process, block copolymers with varying block ratios were synthesized with precise control over their molecular weight and mass dispersity (Đ). The very high chain-end fidelity provided by the photoiniferter polymerization in IL was described by using MALDI-ToF MS analysis.