Synthesis and application of photo-responsive polymers

Abstract

Stimulus-responsive polymers, especially photo-responsive polymers have aroused great interest in recent years. Since light is an environment-friendly and remotely controllable stimulus, which affords photo-responsive polymers with great advantages. This review summarized the recent progress on the synthesis of photo-responsive polymers via post-polymerization modification, radical polymerization and polycondensation, the response mechanism of photo-responsive polymers, and their applications in photo-controlled drug release, photoelectric devices and biosensors.