Water-soluble benzoylformic acid photoinitiators for water-based LED-triggered deep-layer photopolymerization

Abstract

This paper reports a series of water-soluble benzoylformic acid cleavage photoinitiators (BFAs) for LED-triggered photopolymerization based computer simulating. The photolysis mechanism of BFAs under 405 nm LED was investigated by steady-state photolysis, high resolution mass spectrometer, and electron spin resonance. The as-reported water-soluble photoinitiators BFAs can efficiently initiate free radical photopolymerization of oil-based and water-based acrylate monomers under 405 nm LED irradiation, and final double bond conversions reached about 80%. Remarkedly, BAFs exhibited an excellent ability to initiate water-based LED-triggered deep-layer photopolymerization, and the polymerization depth achieved 6.7 cm after 405 nm LED irradiation for 40 s. This study also affords the valuable reference for design and development of photoinitiators for water-based LED-triggered deep-layer photopolymerization.