**Polyolefins**

**Chapter 5**

**Provisional chapter**

**Poly(olefin sulfone)s**

**Poly(olefin sulfone)s**

Takeo Sasaki, Khoa Van Le and Yumiko Naka

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Takeo Sasaki, Khoa Van Le and Yumiko Naka

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.69317

In this chapter, we introduce poly(olefin sulfone)s and review the recent progress on the photoinduced depolymerization of poly(olefin sulfone)s as well as their applications. Poly(olefin sulfone)s combined with photobase generators (PBGs) are depolymerized upon irradiation with light. A poly(olefin sulfone) is a 1:1 alternating copolymer of olefin monomer and sulfur dioxide in which the protons on the carbons adjacent to the sulfonyl groups can be readily abstracted by a base. This removal leads to a depolymerization chain reaction, resulting in incorporation of a photobase generating chromophore that can undergo a photoinduced unzipping reaction. During this reaction, the original olefin monomer and sulfur dioxide are regenerated from the primary chain of the poly(olefin sulfone). The photoinduced depolymerization of poly(olefin sulfone)s has been investigated for a wide variety of applications, including stereolithography, printable microcir-

**Keywords:** poly(olefin sulfone)s, depolymerization, photopolymers, dismantlable

Photopolymers can change their physical and/or chemical properties through the absorption of light [1]. Although many studies on photopolymers have been reported, a few studies show photoinduced conversion to monomers under mild conditions. If a portion of the polymer is converted completely into monomers under light irradiation, the average molecular weight decreases, and this process has potential application to sophisticated device processing, including stereolithography without solvents. Such depolymerization under mild conditions is expected to yield recyclable (and, thus, environmentally friendly or "green") polymers. However, most of the depolymerizable polymers reported require X‐ray or electron‐beam irradiation to trigger the depolymerization process [2, 3]. Only a few reports describe use

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

cuit fabrication, and removable adhesives.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69317

**Abstract**

adhesives

**1. Introduction**

**Provisional chapter**
