Macromolecular Rapid Communications

Oligomers of aniline have recently emerged as flexible building blocks for various nanostructures and as an important mediator in orchestrating nanostructure formation for conducting polymers. In this Feature Article, the role of oligomeric species in the synthesis, assembly, and applications of such nanomaterials are highlighted.

A new photoinduced controlled radical polymerization which is mainly based on photochemical generation of activator in the atom transfer radical polymerization was described. The system can be initiated by in situ generation of copper (I) complex from higher oxidation state species by light without using any reducing agent at room temperature. This strategy may open a new pathway for the synthesis of many nano-structured materials such as well-defined components of coatings, gels and hydrogels, molecular hybrids, biomaterials, and electronic materials.

New photo-sensitive alkoxyamines have been designed using molecular orbital calculations to improve the selective C–O versus N–O cleavage. The targeted alkoxyamine is synthesized in one step and its reactivity under UV-vis investigated using both ESR and LFP. The ability of this alkoxyamine to control the photopolymerization of n-butyl acrylate is evidenced. The alkoxyamine is finally used to prepare covalently bonded multi-layered micro-patterns.