High Surface Area Macro-photoinitiators for Broad Range Solar Light Utilization, from Lab-to-Fab

Converting high energy consuming reaction techniques to energy efficient methods is probably the main interest of modern society, not only for economic reasons but also to avoid extended green-house gas release. In this context, light-driven methods such as photocatalysis is very interesting when compared to the conventional catalytic methods which require heating and/or high pressures. Photopolymerization is an environmentally friendly technique to produce polymers since it is a light-driven process, which even can be conducted under natural sunlight. Photoinitiators are one of the essential components of the photopolymerization. Traditionally, these compounds are introduced to reaction mixture alongside with the monomers homogeneously, which makes it very hard to remove and reuse them. That being said, there are examples of macrophotoinitiators (MPIs), which kick-starts the photopolymerization reactions heterogeneously. However, such compounds are not systematically investigated, therefore, comprehensive studies covering syntheses of electronically adjusted MPIs to be facilitated in broad range of photopolymerization reactions from small- to big-scale are needed. In this proposal (MacroPiN), we aim to conduct various photopolymerizations by using tailor-made MPI out of porous organic polymers, which offers high accessible surface areas and advanced photophysical features along their high-dimensional and hydrothermally stable backbones. In following, increasing the hydrophilicity of the produced MPIs to further utilize them in aqueous media (i.e. to investigate them in relatively more environmentally friendly conditions) will be an interest. Finally, aside performing photopolymerizations in batch, continuous flow reactors will be used to scale-up the photopolymerization products in a semi-autonomous and more “user-friendly” way. Therefore, the proposed research aligns very well with the “climate” and “zero pollution” ambitions of European Green Deal.