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Published on: June 8, 2016
Photoinduced Mechanical Cloaking of Diarylethene-Crosslinked Microgels
Siyang He1,2, Simon Schog3, Ying Chen1,2
1DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials, Forckenbeckstraße 50, 52056, Aachen, Germany.
Abstract:
The serial connection of multiple stimuli-responses in polymer architectures enables the logically conjunctive gating of functional material processes on demand. Here, a photoswitchable diarylethene (DAE) acts as a crosslinker in poly(N-vinylcaprolactam) microgels and allows the light-induced shift of the volume phase-transition temperature (VPTT). While swollen microgels below the VPTT are susceptible to force and undergo breakage-aggregation processes, collapsed microgels above the VPTT stay intact in mechanical fields induced by ultrasonication. Within a VPTT shift regime, photoswitching of the DAE transfers microgels from the swollen to the collapsed state and thereby gates their response to force as demonstrated by the light-gated activation of an embedded fluorogenic mechanophore. This photoinduced mechanical cloaking system operates on the polymer topology level and is thereby principally universally applicable.
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