Light-Induced Thermal Decomposition of Alkoxyamines upon Infrared CO₂ Laser: Toward Spatially Controlled Polymerization of Methacrylates in Laser Write Experiments

Systems combining photopolymerization and thermal polymerization have already been reported in the literature. Upon near-infrared (NIR) light exposure, this principle of polymerization is called photoinduced thermal polymerization or photothermal polymerization. Thanks to an NIR dye used as the light-to-heat convertor (called hereafter a heater), an alkoxyamine (e.g., BlocBuilder-MA) is dissociated upon NIR light irradiation, initiating the free-radical polymerization of methacrylates. In the present paper, a novel approach is presented for the first time to decompose the alkoxyamine through a direct heat generation upon mid-infrared irradiation by a CO2 laser at 10.6 μm. Compared with previous approaches, there is no additional heater used in this work, as the heat is directly generated by laser irradiation on the alkoxyamine/monomer system. The polymerization can be initiated for benchmark methacrylate monomers with spatial controllability, that is, only in the laser-irradiated area, opening the way for laser write or three-dimensional printing applications in the presence of fillers.