Issue 39, 2022

Open-air green-light-driven ATRP enabled by dual photoredox/copper catalysis

Abstract

Photoinduced atom transfer radical polymerization (photo-ATRP) has risen to the forefront of modern polymer chemistry as a powerful tool giving access to well-defined materials with complex architecture. However, most photo-ATRP systems can only generate radicals under biocidal UV light and are oxygen-sensitive, hindering their practical use in the synthesis of polymer biohybrids. Herein, inspired by the photoinduced electron transfer-reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (PET-RAFT) polymerization, we demonstrate a dual photoredox/copper catalysis that allows open-air ATRP under green light irradiation. Eosin Y was used as an organic photoredox catalyst (PC) in combination with a copper complex (X–CuII/L). The role of PC was to trigger and drive the polymerization, while X–CuII/L acted as a deactivator, providing a well-controlled polymerization. The excited PC was oxidatively quenched by X–CuII/L, generating CuI/L activator and PC˙+. The ATRP ligand (L) used in excess then reduced the PC˙+, closing the photocatalytic cycle. The continuous reduction of X–CuII/L back to CuI/L by excited PC provided high oxygen tolerance. As a result, a well-controlled and rapid ATRP could proceed even in an open vessel despite continuous oxygen diffusion. This method allowed the synthesis of polymers with narrow molecular weight distributions and controlled molecular weights using Cu catalyst and PC at ppm levels in both aqueous and organic media. A detailed comparison of photo-ATRP with PET-RAFT polymerization revealed the superiority of dual photoredox/copper catalysis under biologically relevant conditions. The kinetic studies and fluorescence measurements indicated that in the absence of the X–CuII/L complex, green light irradiation caused faster photobleaching of eosin Y, leading to inhibition of PET-RAFT polymerization. Importantly, PET-RAFT polymerizations showed significantly higher dispersity values (1.14 ≤ Đ ≤ 4.01) in contrast to photo-ATRP (1.15 ≤ Đ ≤ 1.22) under identical conditions.

Graphical abstract: Open-air green-light-driven ATRP enabled by dual photoredox/copper catalysis

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
28 7月 2022
Accepted
19 9月 2022
First published
20 9月 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 11540-11550

Open-air green-light-driven ATRP enabled by dual photoredox/copper catalysis

G. Szczepaniak, J. Jeong, K. Kapil, S. Dadashi-Silab, S. S. Yerneni, P. Ratajczyk, S. Lathwal, D. J. Schild, S. R. Das and K. Matyjaszewski, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 11540 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC04210J

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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