Side-chain engineering for high degradation performance of mandrel materials in ICF target fabrication

The exploration of mandrel materials with superior degradation performance to the traditionally adopted hydrocarbon polymer of poly-α-methylstyrene (PAMS), has always been an important pursuit for fabricating high-quality inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets. Here, we propose a method to enhance the degradation performance of mandrel material based on side-chain engineering. A series of hydrocarbon cyclic functional groups, including cyclopentane, cyclopentadiene, naphthalene and azulene, are used to replace the benzene ring on the side chain of PAMS to form new polymer structures. The results show that the degradation performance of structures can be largely regulated by different side chains. In particular, one of the naphthalene-substituted structures has similar properties to PAMS, but the required degradation condition is lower. Furthermore, the reaction rate calculations indicate that this structure is expected to be synthesized experimentally. This work provides a direction for side-chain engineering for research into the key technology of ICF target fabrication in the future.