Benzophenone-di-1,3-dioxane as a novel initiator for free radical photopolymerization

Benzophenone-di-1,3-dioxane (BP-DDO), a novel photoinitiator for free radical polymerization, was synthesized and characterized. The photopolymerization kinetics of BP-DDO was studied by real-time infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). When this photointiator was used to efficiently initiate polymerization of acrylates and methacrylates, there was an optimum cure rate with the increase in BP-DDO concentration. Both the polymerization rate and final conversion increased with the increase in light intensity. The kinetics study of photopolymerization of TMPTA showed that BP-DDO was a more effective photoinitiator than benzophenone and benzophenone/ethyl-4-dimethylaminobenzoate (EDAB).

• A novel photoinitiator benzophenone-di-1,3-dioxane was synthesized and used as an initiator for the photopolymerization.
• Interestingly, BP-DDO showed as a very attractive photoinitiator for free radical polymerization, since it did not require an additional hydrogen donor and could initiate the polymerization of multifunctional monomers.
• Thus can be considered also as a one component photoinitiator.