Spontaneous Multicomponent Polymerization of Imidazole, Diacetylenic Esters, and Diisocyanates for the Preparation of Poly(β-aminoacrylate)s with Cluster-Induced Emission Characteristics

Multicomponent polymerization (MCP) is an efficient and rapid method for obtaining multifunctional polymeric materials that have been widely developed in recent years. In this work, poly(β-aminoacrylate)s were obtained by spontaneous MCP with the assistance of the C2-amidation of 1-methylimidazole together with diacetylenic esters and diisocyanates. This process can be carried out under mild conditions, such as in a catalyst-free and room-temperature environment. Through the systematic optimization of the polymerization conditions, the resultant poly(β-aminoacrylate)s could have molecular weights of up to 24 100 g/mol and excellent yields (up to 94%). All the polymers were well-characterized by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and all the collected data illustrated that the polymerization mechanism corresponds to a model reaction of small molecules. The photophysical property of these obtained polymers indicated tha...