From Glow to Growth: Chemiluminescence Induced Cationic Polymerization Using Ferrocenium Salt

Abstract

Chemiluminescence (CL) has recently emerged as a novel light source for triggering various photoreactions with appealing features such as the elimination of continuous power supply and complex instrumentation. Here, CL‐induced cationic photopolymerization using ferrocenium salts as unimolecular photoinitiators is reported. The ferrocenium salts, facilely synthesized via ligand exchange reactions, absorb the visible light emitted from CL reactions and generate Lewis acids capable of initiating the cationic polymerization of oxirane and vinyl monomers. The presented method can be applied to create linear polymer chains and cross‐linked luminescent polymer networks, which have significant potential in the fabrication of new polymeric materials and various bioapplications.