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Updated: Sep 6, 2025

Optical Control of Living Cells Electrical Activity by Conjugated Polymers
Published on: January 28, 2016
Visible light-controlled living cationic polymerization of methoxystyrene
Lei Wang1, Yupo Xu1, Quan Zuo1
1School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules and State Key Laboratory of Metal Matrix Composites, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
Abstract:
Photo-controlled living polymerization has received great attention in recent years. However, despite the great success therein, the report on photo-controlled living cationic polymerization has been greatly limited. We demonstrate here a novel decolorable, metal-free and visible light-controlled living cationic polymerization system by using tris(2,4-dimethoxyphenyl)methylium tetrafluoroborate as the photocatalyst and phosphate as the chain transfer agent (CTA) for polymerization of 4-methoxystyrene. This polymerization reaction under green LED light irradiation shows clear living characteristics including predictable molar mass, low molar-mass dispersity (Đ = 1.25), and sequential polymerization capability. In addition, the photocatalytic system exits excellent "on-off" photo switchability and shows the longest "off period" of 36 h up to now for photo-controlled cationic polymerization. Furthermore, the residual photo-catalyst is easily deactivated and decolored with addition of a base after the polymerization. The present study has extended the photo-controlled living cationic polymerization systems with new organic photocatalysts, phosphate CTA and polymerizable monomer as well as the new properties of excellent photostability and in-situ decolored capacity.
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