Determination of the polymerisation rate of a low-toxicity diacetone acrylamide-based holographic photopolymer using Raman spectroscopy

•We use Raman spectroscopy to determine the polymerisation rate in a low-toxicity Diacetone Acrylamide (DA)-based photopolymer.•We examine the influence of the addition of glycerol to the photopolymer on the polymerisation rate.•The results are discussed in the context of resulting chain length distribution and disorder in the polymer system.

The polymerisation rate of a low-toxicity Diacetone Acrylamide (DA)-based photopolymer has been measured for the first time using Raman spectroscopy. A value for the polymerisation rate of 0.020 s−1 has been obtained for the DA photopolymer by modelling the polymerisation reaction dynamics as a stretched exponential or Kohlrausch decay function. This is significantly lower than the polymerisation rate of 0.100 s−1 measured for the well known Acrylamide (AA)-based photopolymer composition. The effect of the additive glycerol on the polymerisation rate of the DA-based photopolymer has also been investigated. The inclusion of glycerol is observed to increase the rate of polymerisation of the DA photopolymer by up to 60%. It is also observed that the polymerisation rate of the DA photopolymer is less dependent on the recording intensity when glycerol is present.