Photo-crosslinking polymers by dynamic covalent disulfide bonds.

A simple and general strategy to construct photo-crosslinkable polymers by introducing sidechain 1,2-dithiolanes based on natural thioctic acid is presented. The disulfide five-membered rings act both as light-absorbing and dynamic covalent crosslinking units, enabling efficient photo-crosslinking and reversible chemical decrosslinking of polydimethylsiloxane polymers.