A humidity blocker approach to overcoming the humidity interference with cationic photopolymerization

Abstract

AbstractA humidity blocker approach to overcoming the humidity interference with cationic photopolymerization is proposed and validated. Environmental humidity is one of the major interfering factors in cationic photopolymerization, and cationic photopolymerization is found to be inhibited by high humidity. When curing cycloaliphatic epoxide based cationic UV curable materials flexibilized by various reactive diluents under different humidity conditions, it was found that the more hydrophobic materials exhibited higher monomer conversion under higher humidity. To obtain cationic UV curable materials that are less influenced by humidity, a humidity blocker approach was proposed and monomer conversion of materials containing both hydroxy‐functional reactive diluents and epoxy‐siloxane were examined using real‐time FTIR. The hydroxy‐functional reactive diluents act as an internal hydroxyl source that enhances monomer conversion through chain transfer mechanism, and the hydrophobic epoxy‐siloxane acts as a humidity blocker, mitigating the inhibiting effects of humidity. Cationic UV curable materials with an optimized combination of these two components exhibited higher and more consistent monomer conversion under a range humidity conditions. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 4344–4351, 2008