Light responsive chemistry – A design strategy for remodelling benzoxazine architectures towards room temperature processing

Polybenzoxazines, a novel class of phenolic thermosetting polymers, are admired for the molecular design versatility, high service temperature, appreciable chemical resistance, and strong mechanical performance. Despite many advantages, these materials undergo ring opening polymerization at high temperature, which is the first carping issue raised by the engineers regarding their utilization in any large-scale engineering application. In this regard, benzoxazine monomers or their formulations, which can offer light triggered curing characteristics, may provide solution to impediments associated with high temperature processing. Several reports are available where a variety of light-responsive chemistries, such as vinyl polymerization, cycloaddition reactions, or thiol-ene reactions, have been utilized for developing light-curable formulations based on benzoxazine. In order to provide a landscape of these light-responsive benzoxazine architectures and their furtherance, the findings of these reports have been reviewed in the present article. Furthermore, the conclusions drawn from the reported literature have been enumerated, and the future orientations are highlighted. It is worth mentioning that the present review article will provide a vision to design novel light-curable formulations based on benzoxazine, which will be beneficial in harvesting the potential of these advanced thermosets in engineering applications.