Photo-induced living cationic copolymerization of isobutyl vinyl ether and vinyl ether with carbazolyl groups

In this work, a fluorescent monomer 2-(9-carbazolyl) ethyl vinyl ether (CEVE) was synthesized in our lab, and its photo-induced living cationic copolymerization behavior with isobutyl vinyl ether (IBVE) was investigated in detail using diphenyliodonium chloride (DPICl)/2,2-dimethoxy-2-phenylacetophenone (DMPA) and zinc bromide (ZnBr 2 ) initiating system in dichloromethane solution at 5 °C, −5 °C, and −15 °C, respectively. The living nature of this copolymerization system was confirmed by adding fresh comonomer method after the copolymerization almost finished. In addition, the obtained fluorescent copolymer poly(IBVE- co -CEVE) has a low glass transition temperature ( T g ), below −10 °C.