Developing aggregation-induced emission vinyl ether polymers via cationic polymerization and tacticity regulation

Abstract

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) polymeric materials have found widespread applications in a variety of domains. Accordingly, the development of new AIE polymers is undoubtedly of great significance to expand the diversity and application scope of AIE chemistry. In this study, we introduced a new class of AIE polymers based on vinyl ethers, which is enabled by cationic polymerization and the incorporation of a tetraphenylethylene (TPE)-functionalized vinyl ether monomer. Of note, TPE could remain intact under the cationic polymerization conditions used. Furthermore, stereoselective cationic polymerization is also established by employing confined Brønsted acid mediation, thus affording the regulation of tacticity, and, accordingly, AIE-active vinyl ether polymers with different and tunable thermal and mechanical properties can be obtained. Moreover, besides the desired characteristic AIE behavior, the resulting polymers also exhibit excellent adhesiveness to polar surfaces like glass, even stronger than that of 502 Super Glue, and the AIE adhesion layer could maintain the good transparency of glass while becoming visible based on its fluorescence emission under UV light (365 nm) for detection. We anticipate that vinyl ether polymers as a functional AIE-group carrier could find further applications in the future.