Phenanthroline Derivatives as Efficient Organic Photocatalysts for Visible‐Light‐Mediated PET‐RAFT Polymerization

Abstract

Comprehensive SummaryPhenanthroline is an excellent and stable π‐electron acceptor with a large conjugated chromophore. Phenanthroline derivatives are widely used in adsorption, photodegradation, solar cells, biology, and so on. At present, there are still limited organic molecules utilized to efficiently photocatalyze reversible‐deactivation radical polymerization (RDRP). Therefore, the design of organic photocatalysts (OPCs) for RDRP remains a challenge. Herein, according to the strategy of combining the donor groups and weak acceptor groups, donor‐acceptor (D‐A) type OPCs based on phenanthroline were utilized for the first time in photoinduced electron transfer‐reversible addition‐fragmentation chain transfer (PET‐RAFT) polymerization. 1,10‐Phenanthroline‐5‐amine (Aphen) with a donor group‐amino was screened out for efficacious photo‐controlled radical polymerization under blue light for various monomers with conjugated and unconjugated structures with high monomer conversion and well‐defined narrow dispersity polymers (Đ < 1.20). Controllable homo‐polymers and block copolymers were successfully realized by chain extension reaction and block copolymerization of structurally diverse monomers.