Photoinitiating Characteristics of Benzophenone Derivatives as Type II Macromolecular Photoinitiators Used for UV Curable Resins

Dodecyl-benzophenone(DBP) and hexadecoxyl-benzophenone(HDBP) as type II photoinitiators used for radical photopolymerization systems were synthesized by Friedel-Crafts reaction, and characterized by H-1 NMR and FTIR spectroscopy. The UV-Vis absorption spectra of DBP and HDBP, propitious to photopolymerization under a commercial mercury UV bulb are centered at 345 and 335 nm, respectively. HDBP has higher extinction coefficient than DBP, but lower photoinitiating efficiency. Their photoinitiating performances for EB605, a bisphenol A epoxy acrylate with 40%(mass fraction) tripropyleneglycol diacrylate (TPGDA), resin consisting of bisphenol A epoxy acrylate and tripropyleneglycol diacrylate in the presence of triethanolamine as a coinitiator were investigated by photo-differential scanning calorimetry(photo-DSC). DBP initiates the curing of acrylate more efficiently than HDBP, showing higher photopolymerization rate and unsaturation conversion, resulted from the poor compatibility of HDBP with the resin. The photoinitiating activity of DBP to epoxy acrylate resin is even higher than that of BP at lower loadings.