Vinyl Sulfonate Esters: Efficient Chain Transfer Agents for the 3D Printing of Tough Photopolymers without Retardation

The formation of networks through light-initiated radical polymerization allows little freedom for tailored network design. The resulting inhomogeneous network architectures and brittle material behavior of such glassy-type networks limit the commercial application of photopolymers in 3D printing, biomedicine, and microelectronics. An ester-activated vinyl sulfonate ester (EVS) is presented for the rapid formation of tailored methacrylate-based networks. The chain transfer step induced by EVS reduces the kinetic chain length of the photopolymer, thus shifting the gel point to higher conversion, which results in reduced shrinkage stress and higher overall conversion. The resulting, more homogeneous network is responsible for the high toughness of the material. The unique property of EVS to promote nearly retardation-free polymerization can be attributed to the fact that after the transfer step no polymerizable double bond is formed, as is usually seen in classical chain transfer agents. Laser flash photolysis, theoretical calculations, and photoreactor studies were used to elucidate the fast chain transfer reaction and exceptional regulating ability of EVS. Final photopolymer networks exhibit improved mechanical performance making EVS an outstanding candidate for the 3D printing of tough photopolymers.