A Simple Photochemical Route to Hyperbranched Polymers by Using Photolatent Inimer

A novel and straightforward approach for the synthesis of hyperbranched polymers (HBPs) by photoinduced self-condensing vinyl polymerization (SCVP) is explored. The SCVP is achieved using a divinyl monomer possessing photocleavable moiety in the inner structure, acting as both photoinitiator and inimer (photolatent inimer) in conjunction with methyl methacrylate (MMA) under UV irradiation. HBPs with different branching densities are successfully produced. Depending on the concentration of inimer and irradiation time, lightly branched, hyperbranched and cross-linked polymers are formed. The described approach may lead to future directions of photopolymerization in various applications especially in bio related systems requiring highly branched structures without contamination of low-molar mass photoinitiator fragments.