3D Printing of Polydiacetylene Photocomposite Materials: Two Wavelengths for Two Orthogonal Chemistries

Abstract

Polydiacetylene (PDA) materials are appealing and gaining increasing research interest due to their outstanding chromatic transition and fluorescence enhancement effects upon exposure to various environmental stimuli. However, despite the photomask method, there are very few reports about the spatial controllable photopolymerization and subsequent 3D printing of PDA until now. Herein, for the first time, we reported the preparation of PDA photocomposite materials based on polyacrylate through the strategy of dual-wavelength polymerization and orthogonal chemistry. First, diacetylene (DA) monomers were homogeneously dispersed in acrylate resin. Then a violet light emitting diode (LED) (or laser diode) was used for the free radical polymerization of polyacrylate. Finally, UV irradiation was utilized to induce the 1,4-topopolymerization of PDA, which could show a successive blue to purple to red color transition in response to the gradient increment of temperature. Interestingly, instead of photomasks, we applied a 3D printing approach directly to this composite material and fabricated some macroscopic stereo patterns, which also illustrated thermochromic properties. This novel kind of functional photocomposite material would demonstrate a huge application prospect in many potential fields, including colorimetric sensing, information encryption, anticounterfeiting, and so on.