Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Photocontrolled Degradation Of Stimuli-Responsive Poly(Ethyl Glyoxylate): Differentiating Features And Traceless Ambient Depolymerization, Bo Fan, John Trant, Rebecca Yardley, Andrew Pickering, Francois Lagugne-Labarthet, Elizabeth Gillies

Chemistry Publications

The depolymerization of coatings prepared from a 6-nitroveratryl carbonate end-capped poly(ethyl glyoxylate) (PEtG) self-immolative polymer was studied. This polymer undergoes end-to-end depolymerization following cleavage of the end-cap by UV light. Several important fundamental diff erences between this class of polymers and conventional degradable polymers were revealed. For example, polymer backbone cleavage and depolymerization exhibited different dependencies on pH, emphasizing the decoupling of these processes. Probing of the coating erosion mechanism illustrated an interesting combination of features from surface erosion and bulk degradation mechanisms that arise from the end-to-end depolymerization mechanism and further differentiate these polymers from convention degradable polymers. It …