Styrylbenzimidazolium dye–borate complex as an effective, singlet state photoinitiator in an argon laser-induced TMPTA photopolymerization

Dye photoinitiators consisting of styrylbenzimidazolium cations, acting both as light absorbers and as electron acceptors and n-butyltriphenylborate anions being electron donors were tested in order to reveal the effect of a dye structure on the efficiency of multiacrylate photoinitiated polymerization. The efficiency of tested systems depends on the ΔGel of electron transfer between borate anion and hemicyanine cation. The latter value was experimentally determined for 9 photoredox pairs. The relationship between the rate of polymerization and the free energy of activation of electron-transfer reaction shows the dependence predicted by the classical theory of electron-transfer phenomena. The kinetic studies clearly demonstrated that the styrylbenzimidazolium borate photoredox pairs are very promising photoinitiators for multiacrylates free radical polymerization. They initiate the polymerization reaction with the efficiency comparable to RBAX, Rose Bengal derivative, common triplet state initiator.