Visualizing Chain Growth of Polytelluoxane via Polymerization Induced Emission

Visualizing polymer chain growth is always a hot topic for tailoring structure-function properties in polymer chemistry. However, current characterization methods are limited in their ability to differentiate the degree of polymerization in real-time without isolating the samples from the reaction vessel, let alone to detect insoluble polymers. Herein, a reliable relationship is established between polymer chain growth and fluorescence properties through polymerization induced emission. (TPE-C2)2-Te is used to realize in situ oxidative polymerization, leading to the aggregation of fluorophores. The relationship between polymerization degree of growing polytelluoxane (PTeO) and fluorescence intensity is constructed, enabling real-time monitoring of the polymerization reaction. More importantly, this novel method can be further applied to the observation of the polymerization process for growing insoluble polymer via surface polymerization. Therefore, the development of visualization technology will open a new avenue for visualizing polymer chain growth in real-time, regardless of polymer solubility. Visualizing polymer chain growth is always a hot topic in polymer chemistry. However, current characterization methods are limited in their ability to differentiate the degree of polymerization without isolating the samples from the reaction vessel, let alone to detect insoluble polymers. Instantaneous in-line analytical methods are proposed to visualize polymer chain growth via oxidative polymerization induced fluorescence emission.image

Automated summary

Visualizing polymer chain growth is always a hot topic in polymer chemistry. However, current characterization methods are limited in their ability to differentiate the degree of polymerization without isolating the samples from the reaction vessel, let alone to detect insoluble polymers. This study establishes a reliable relationship between polymer chain growth and fluorescence properties through polymerization induced emission, enabling real-time monitoring of the polymerization reaction. The method can also be applied to observe the polymerization process of insoluble polymers, opening a new avenue for visualizing polymer chain growth in real-time, regardless of polymer solubility.