Chapter 16: Photoclick Chemistry in Polymer Science

Externally prompted light-induced “photoclick” reactions are inexhaustibly beneficial for one-of-a-kind molecular transformations with great stereoselectivity, accuracy, and efficiency, as well as imparting spacio-temporal control to biomolecules. In its most basic form, photoclick chemistry may be thought of as an aggregation of click reactions that can be initiated by the application of light, encompassing various reaction methodologies like 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition, the Diels–Alder reaction, thiol–ene/yne reactions, and nucleophilic addition. Photoclick chemistry is widely explored for its application in the synthesis of tailor-made polymeric conjugates for drug delivery purposes with minimal side effects and high loading capacity, thereby providing significant improvement over conventional polymeric systems utilized for drug delivery.