Radical chemistry is a very convenient way to produce polymer materials. Here, an application of a particular photoinduced radical chemistry is illustrated. Seven new carbazole derivatives Cd1-Cd7 are incorporated and proposed as high performance near-UV photoinitiators for both the free radical polymerization (FRP) of (meth)acrylates and the cationic polymerization (CP) of epoxides utilizing Light Emitting Diodes LEDs @405 nm. Excellent polymerization-initiating abilities are found and high final reactive function conversions are obtained. Interestingly, these new derivatives display much better near-UV polymerization-initiating abilities compared to a reference UV absorbing carbazole (CARET 9H-carbazole-9-ethanol) demonstrating that the new substituents have good ability to red shift the absorption of the proposed photoinitiators. All the more strikingly, in combination with iodonium salt, Cd1-Cd7 are likewise preferred as cationic photoinitiators over the notable photoinitiator bis(2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl)phenylphosphine oxide (BAPO) for mild irradiation conditions featuring their remarkable reactivity. In particular their utilization in the preparation of new cationic resins for LED projector 3D printing is envisioned. A full picture of the included photochemical mechanisms is given.
Keywords: 3D printing; cationic polymerization; free radical polymerization; light emitting diodes (LEDs); photoinitiators.