A bis-acrylate functionalized enone as photoinitiator and crosslinker in photopolymerization

Enone dyes have gained considerable interest in photoinitiation systems due to their facile synthesis, good light absorption, and photobleaching ability during photopolymerization. However, besides acting as photoinitiator, little work was dedicated to developing new function for enone dyes in polymer synthesis by photopolymerization. In this work, a bis-acrylate functionalized enone derivative (C3POAC) was synthesized and characterized, which is expected to serve not only as a photoinitiator but also as a crosslinker. Steady state photolysis was carried out to show the high photochemical reactivity of C3POAC with an amine co-initiator. The initiation efficiency of C3POAC towards different acrylate monomers was evaluated by real-time FTIR technology. In most cases, good polymerization profiles were obtained. In addition, C3POAC presented the dual role of photoinitiator and crosslinker in the photopolymerization of butyl acrylate.