Volume 43, Issue 4 2100703
Perspective

Controlling Properties and Functions of Polymer Gels Using Photochemical Reactions

Jingning Cao

Jingning Cao

CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Anhui Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Science and Technology, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026 China

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Dachuan Zhang

Dachuan Zhang

CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Anhui Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Science and Technology, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026 China

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Yang Zhou

Yang Zhou

CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Anhui Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Science and Technology, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026 China

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Qijin Zhang

Corresponding Author

Qijin Zhang

CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Anhui Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Science and Technology, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026 China

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

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Si Wu

Corresponding Author

Si Wu

CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Anhui Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Science and Technology, Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026 China

E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

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First published: 17 January 2022
Citations: 3

Abstract

Photoresponsive polymer gels have attracted increasing interest owing to their potential applications in healable materials, drug release systems, and extracellular matrices. Because polymer gels provide suitable environments for photochemical reactions, their properties and functions can be controlled with light with a high spatiotemporal resolution. Herein, the design of photoresponsive polymer gels based on different types of photochemical reactions is introduced. The mechanism and applications of irreversible photoreactions, such as photoinduced free-radical polymerization, photoinduced click reactions, and photolysis, as well as reversible photoreactions such as photoinduced reversible cycloadditions, reversible photosubstitution of metal complexes, and photoinduced metathesis are reviewed. The remaining challenges of photoresponsive polymer gels are also discussed.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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