Synthesis and Properties of High‐Refractive‐Index Iodine‐Containing Polyacrylates

Abstract We examined the radical polymerization of 2,4,6‐triiodophenyl acrylate (TIPA), the chain‐transfer radical polymerization of TIPA in the presence of 4,4‐thiobisbenzenethiol (TBBT) or 4‐mercaptopyridine (MP), and the radical copolymerization of TIPA with 2‐hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) or 2‐(2‐ethoxyethoxy) ethyl acrylate (EEA), using AIBN as an initiator at 60 °C for 20 h. These reactions afforded poly(TIPA), TBBT‐poly(TIPA) m , MP‐poly(TIPA) m poly(TIPA m ‐ co ‐HEA n ) and poly(TIPA m ‐ co ‐EEA n ), respectively, with M n values in the range of 3,180 to 46,550, in satisfactory yields. MP‐poly(TIPA) 41 ( M n =6,880), poly(TIPA 88 ‐ co ‐HEA 12 ) ( M n =11,300), and poly(TIPA 85 ‐ co ‐EEA 15 ) ( M n =19,200) showed film‐forming ability, although poly(TIPA) and TBBT‐poly(TIPA) m did not. Among them, poly(TIPA 85 ‐ co ‐EEA 15 ) showed high values of refractive index ( n ) and Abbe number (ν), i. e., n =1.850 and ν=20.7.