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Tailoring Hydrogen-Bonding Strategy for Sequence-Dependent and Thermo/pH Dual-Responsive Clusteroluminescence
Dongyun Li1, Yue Sun2, Weidong Zhang2
1State and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Novel Functional Polymeric Materials, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, P. R. China.
Designing polymer sequences is difficult. This study shows that gradient copolymers with specific monomer arrangements significantly enhance light emission through tailored hydrogen bonding, enabling stimuli-responsive materials.
Area of Science:
- Polymer Chemistry
- Materials Science
- Supramolecular Chemistry
Background:
- Controlling monomer sequence in polymers is crucial for tailoring material properties.
- Double hydrophilic copolymers (DHCs) offer tunable characteristics for advanced applications.
- Luminescence in non-conjugated polymers is often challenging to control and enhance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of monomer distribution on the cluster triggered emission (CTE) capacity of DHCs.
- To establish a direct correlation between polymer sequence structure and luminescent intensity.
- To develop stimuli-responsive light-emitting polymers with enhanced performance.
Main Methods:
- Synthesis of random, pseudo di-block, and gradient DHCs using latent monomer strategy and RAFT polymerization.
- Utilized selective hydrolysis technology for controlled copolymer synthesis.
- Characterized DHCs composed of pH-responsive polyacrylic acid (PAA) and thermo-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) segments.
Main Results:
- Successfully synthesized gradient DHCs with controlled sequence structures.
- Gradient DHCs exhibited significantly enhanced luminescent intensity compared to random and pseudo di-block counterparts.
- Demonstrated a direct correlation between luminescent intensity and the sequence structure of non-conjugated polymers.
Conclusions:
- Monomer sequence and distribution play a critical role in tuning the luminescent properties of DHCs.
- Gradient DHCs show superior cluster triggered emission due to distinct hydrogen-bonding interactions.
- This work presents a novel method for designing stimuli-responsive, light-emitting polymers by controlling hydrogen bonding.
