Iodinated Polystyrene for Polymeric Charge Transfer Complexes: Toward High-Performance Near-UV and Visible Light Macrophotoinitiators

In recent works, charge transfer complexes (CTCs) have proved to be useful photoinitiating agents to trigger free radical polymerization. However, because of their low molecular weights, migration issues remain very important. In line with pressing migration concerns around photoinitiating systems (e.g., in 3D polymer networks), we report here the use of the first polymeric CTC based on iodinated polystyrene/amine interactions. This study shows the formation of the CTC between the polystyrene derivative (electron acceptor EA) and a tertiary alkylamine (electron donor ED); the ability of this EA/ED couple in a CTC to act as a photoinitiator for the polymerization of multifunctional acrylates upon LED@405 nm irradiation is investigated. Examples of applications to 3D-resolved laser write of thick controlled samples (1 mm) are provided.