Photopolymerization of Vinyl Monomers Using Organic Initiators

This miniaccount presents the selective examples of our recent discoveries in the photopolymerization of vinyl monomers using the organic initiators such as hydrosilanes, poly(hydroarylsilane)s, benzoin silyl ethers, and thianthrene cation radical. In the photopolymerization of vinyl monomers with silanes polysilanes, while the polymerization yields and polymer molecular weights of the poly(MMA)s containing the silyl moieties decreased, the TGA residue yields and intensities of SiH stretching IR bands increased as the mole ratio of the silanes over MMA increased. The hydroarylsilane and poly(hydroarylsilane) seemed to influence strongly on the photopolymerizaiton of olefinic monomers as both chain initiation and chain transfer agents. For the photohomopolymerization and photocopolymerization of MA and AA, the similar trends were observed. Benzoin silyl ethers and thianthrene cation radical also exhibit the photoinitiating ability in the photopolymerization of MMA.