A new visible light induced step-growth polymerization of dibromoxylene, and diols using dimanganese decacarbonyl and diphenyliodonium salt is described. The polymerization is suggested to proceed by substitution reaction between dixylenium cations formed upon visible light irradiation in the presence of dimanganese decacarbonyl and diphenyl iodonium salt. For the described substitution reaction with diols as nucleophilic component, the scope of the process is studied. Furthermore, the presence of halide groups at chain ends of the resulting polymers provided the possibility of initiating subsequent free radical and free radical promoted cationic resulting in the formation of polyether-based block copolymers.
Keywords: photopolymerization; polyethers; step-growth polymerization; visible light.
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