Visible Light Synthesis of Semi-fluorinated Polymer

Abstract

Fluorinated polymers such as polytetrafluoroethylene（Teflon®）are indispensable materials in our daily lives because of their high chemical stability, high water repellency, low dielectric constant, and other properties that are irreplaceable. However, due to their special properties, they also have problems such as low solubility in solvents, poor moldability, low adhesiveness, and difficulty in introducing functional groups. Therefore, partially fluorinated polymers are long awaited in order to give them the desired properties while maintaining the good qualities of fluoropolymers as much as possible. On the other hand, visible light induced reactions have been studied explosively in recent years, and organocatalytic fluoroalkylation reactions, which do not use rare metals, have been reported. In this paper, we introduce a recent synthesis of partially fluorinated polymers using a metal-free visible light reaction. First, we introduce the controlled polymerization of polymers with fluoroalkyl groups in the side or main chain by RAFT polymerization. Next, the synthesis of fluoroalkyl-alkyl alternating polymers using the atom transfer reaction of perfluoroalkyl diiodide is described. Finally, the post-reaction introduction of fluoroalkyl groups into aromatic polymers by visible light reaction is presented.