Diazene-Functionalized Lamellar Materials as Nanobuilding Blocks: Application as Light-Sensitive Fillers to Initiate Radical Photopolymerizations.

New polysilsesquioxane-based lamellar materials, functionalized with radical precursors, were synthesized. They play a double role in the preparation of composite materials: first, as filler homogeneously dispersed in the monomer after delamination, second as radical initiator in photopolymerization. These polysilsesquioxanes enable fast and efficient photopolymerization upon UV light for thick samples. High conversions in monomers as well as the formation of hybrid polymers covalently linked to the filler are observed. This strategy, based on a double bottom-up approach, avoids the solubility/dispersion problem encountered in the classical preparation of composite polymers from preformed organic polymers.