Vinyl monomers bearing chromophore moieties and their polymers. VI. Synthesis and photochemical behavior of acrylic monomer bearing phenoxazine moiety and its polymer

An acrylic monomer having phenoxazine moiety, i.e., N-acryloylphenoxazine (APO), has been synthesized by dehydrochlorination of N-(3-chloropropionyl)phenoxazine with 1,5-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-5-ene in dimethyl sulfoxide. The monomer can be polymerized with AIBN as an initiator. The photochemical behavior, including the fluorescence and photosensitizing properties of this monomer and its polymer, has been studied. It has been recorded that the absorption spectrum of polymer P(APO) displays a few blue shifts compared with its monomer APO. It has also been observed that the fluorescence emission intensity of the monomer is dramatically lower than that of its polymer at the same chromophore concentration. This may be ascribed to the charge transfer interacting between the coexisting electron-accepting acrylic carbon-carbon double bond and the electron-donation phenoxazine moiety in APO, intramolecularly or intermolecularly on excitation. The fluorescence of the APO polymer, which does not have carbon-carbon double bond, can be quenched by electron-deficient unsaturated nitriles and esters, clarifying that the electron-deficient carbon-carbon double bond does play an important role for the fluorescence quenching of the monomer. Thus, we term such phenomena as structural self-quenching effect, differing from the concentrational self-quenching effect, which is caused mainly by concentrational factors. The fluorescence quenching of P(APO) by C<INF>60</INF> has also been demonstrated. The formation of the charge transfer complex of P(APO) with C<INF>60</INF> in the ground state is revealed by the upward deviation from the linearity of the Stern-Volmer plot. APO can act as a photoinitiator to sensitize the photopolymerization of vinyl monomers such as acrylonitrile in dimethyl formamide and pursued kinetically. From the ultraviolet analysis of the PAN sensitized by APO, it is proved that APO not only sensitizes the photopolymerization of AN, but also incorporates in the PAN chain. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 65:481–489, 1997