(338b) New Chemistry for Revealing Latent Acrylates and Its Implementation in Controllable Polymer Systems

Acrylate materials are widely used in polymer science due to their high reactivity and synthetic versatility. However, this can also be a disadvantage because acrylate functionalities need extensive care to stabilize. Additionally, these materials cannot typically be degraded, thus adding to the existing plastic waste issue. This work explores a chemistry which reveals latent acrylates within a polymer network, allowing the user to control when the acrylates appear. A small molecule system was first developed, in which a mercaptopropionate was added to allyl glycidyl ether to form a thioether with an epoxide functionality. It was found that when this material was heated at 125°C, acrylates were exposed via a mechanism not widely explored in the literature. To further probe the mechanism of the reaction, the reaction products and yield were examined using a variety of catalysts and reaction conditions. This chemistry was then explored for applications in controllable and degradable networks by using a multi-functional thiol.