Department of Chemistry, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, 32901, USA.
Macromol Rapid Commun. 2018 Aug;39(15):e1800319. doi: 10.1002/marc.201800319. Epub 2018 Jun 20.
In recent years, merocyanine photoacids have been utilized to control various chemical processes using visible light and have found applications in materials, energy, and biomedical areas. Molecular merocyanine photoacids are commonly used in the previous works. Covalently linking the photoacids to polymers improves their compatibility with different media, avoids leakage problems, and allows a localized proton concentration to be produced. However, the phenolic and indolinium moieties of the photoacids make them difficult to be polymerized with common methods. In this work, the monomer of a merocyanine photoacid is converted to a spiropyran in situ by adding trimethylamine to a dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution of the monomer. Free radical polymerization yields the polymers of the spiropyran, which is acidified to regenerate the photoacid. The photoacid polymers prepared show good solubility, photoacidity, and reversibility. Irradiating a thin film of a photoacid polymer doped with methyl orange through a mask copies the pattern of the mask to the film. The pattern can be erased by heating the film at 80 °C for 10 min, and a new pattern is created by irradiation through a different mask.
近年来，甲川菁类光酸已被用于利用可见光控制各种化学反应，并在材料、能源和生物医学领域得到了应用。在以前的工作中，通常使用分子甲川菁类光酸。将光酸共价键合到聚合物上可以提高其与不同介质的相容性，避免泄漏问题，并允许产生局部质子浓度。然而，光酸的酚和吲哚啉部分使得它们难以用常见的方法聚合。在这项工作中，通过向单体的二甲基亚砜（DMSO）溶液中添加三甲胺，将甲川菁类光酸的单体原位转化为螺噁嗪。自由基聚合得到螺噁嗪聚合物，然后将其酸化以再生光酸。所制备的光酸聚合物表现出良好的溶解性、光酸性和可逆性。通过掩模对掺杂有甲基橙的光酸聚合物薄膜进行辐照，可以将掩模的图案复制到薄膜上。通过在 80°C 下加热薄膜 10 分钟可以擦除图案，并通过不同的掩模进行辐照可以创建新的图案。
