Abstract
Photo-induced polymerization and degradation processes provide drastic physical changes of monomeric and polymeric systems. Herein we demonstrate three multifunctional methacryloyloximes composed of core aromatic rings and photolabile O-acyloxime units, including newly prepared truxenone tris(O-methacryloyl)trioxime. These molecules afforded covalently crosslinked copolymers by free-radical polymerization. The methacryloyloximes also worked as photoinitiators that release free-radicals on irradiation with near UV light. Furthermore, resulting polymers degraded on irradiation due to the cleavage of covalent bonds. These results indicate that the methacryloyloximes played multiple roles in the formation and degradation of networked polymeric materials.
