Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Emulsion polymerization in water is an important process to produce polymer latexes for various applications. Several recent works have attempted to use visible-light-driven reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer (RAFT) polymerization to further control polymer architectures in miniemulsion under mild conditions. However, photoinduced RAFT miniemulsion polymerization mediated by common amphiphilic chain transfer agents suffers from secondary nucleation, yielding latexes with broad molecular weight distributions. Here, we show that a bio-based hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent (DES) composed of menthol and decanoic acid serves as a green functional additive that restores control over the polymerization. Incorporating the DES into the organic phase of a methyl methacrylate (MMA) miniemulsion reduced the molecular weight dispersity from 3.12 to 1.71, while maintaining rapid polymerization under blue visible light and open-to-air conditions. Also, miniemulsion polymerization with DES shows substantial polymerization in the dark after a brief period of irradiation, resulting in a process with lower energy cost than conventional photoinduced polymerization. In short, this work establishes inexpensive, low-toxicity DES as a practical route to energy-efficient, oxygen-tolerant, and precise photoinduced miniemulsion polymerization.
Source: RSC Advances
DOI: 10.1039/d6ra10517c
Authors: Yun-Lun Huang, Shih-Ching Wang, Sheng-Sheng Yu
Institution: National Cheng Kung University
Language: English
Subfield: Organic Chemistry
Field: Chemistry
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,042
OpenAlex ID: W7225128667