Macromolecular Engineering by Photochemical Routes

Applications of photochemical processes have been revitalized and rapidly expanding, especially after its indisputable advantages in comparison to conventional methods have been realized. These advantages include low energy requirements, environmentally friendly processing, mildness, and modularity. As such, photochemical strategies meet the requirements of green chemistry, which is perhaps the most important demand as we move to a more sustainable world. The most important application of photochemistry to polymer synthesis is definitely photopolymerization, which is the typical process that transforms monomers into polymers through photon energy. The use of photoinitiators in such systems is of high priority as they lead to the generation of the reactive species responsible for initiation. Photopolymerization can be applied to both chain and step-growth polymerizations, though the former is in more advanced state. For chain polymerizations, free radical and cationic photoinitiators can be employed.