Fluorescent brighteners in thiol-acrylate polymerizations: Sunlight-cured coatings and LED-assisted multifuctional intelligent nanoparticles synthesis

Abstract

Abstract Fluorescent brighteners mediated, thiol-ene polymerizations retain the robustness of step-growth mechanism meanwhile introducing new features: biocompatible wavelengths of visible light and aqueous reaction conditions. The proposed visible-light thiol-ene polymerization of trithiol − triene monomer is shown to be an innovative, facile, and highly efficient route that constructs a versatile platform for synthesizing high-performance coatings and multifuctional intelligent nanoparticles, respectively performed in a bulk form and emulsion form. In particular, the achievement of the concept of natural-sunlight-triggered thiol-ene polymerization is extremely valuable for coating synthesis as the method is green and friendly to environment in a sustainable manner. Besides, the resulting poly(thioester) latexes are capable of being applicable as multi-stimuli-responsive nanocarriers sensitive to UV, pH and redox.