Fluorescence "turn-on" patterning with polymers having pendant triphenylmethane groups as fluorophore precursors

A new methodology for creating patterned fluorescence images was developed based on acrylate polymers that have pendant triphenylmethane derivatives as precursor fluorophores. Photoinduced oxidation of the substituted nonfluorescent triphenylmethane substituents on the polymers results in the generation of fluorescent cationic species. Patterned fluorescence images were obtained when the polymer film was subjected to photomasked UV-irradiation. The rate of formation and quality of the patterned images were found to be dependent on the nature of substituents on the methane carbon of the triphenylmethane group. Inefficient image formation takes place with the polymer derived from the H-substituted derivative owing to the inefficient oxidation of the triphenylmethane group. In contrast, photomasked UV-irradiation of a thin polymer film derived from the CN-substituted triphenylmethane derivative leads to fast (1 s irradiation, 12 mW · cm(-2)) and finely resolved patterned fluorescence images.