Recent Advances on Visible Light Coumarin-based Oxime Esters as Initiators of Polymerization

Type I Photoinitiator Based on Sustainable Carbon Dots

Sustainable carbon dots comprising surficial oxime ester groups following homolytic bond cleavage exhibit potential as photoinitiators for traditional free radical photopolymerization. Carbon dots were made following a solvothermal procedure from sustainable furfural available from lignocellulose. Surficial aldehyde moieties reacted with hydroxylamine to the respective oxime while reaction with benzoyl chloride resulted in a biobased Type I photoinitiator comprising sustainable carbon dot (CD-PI). Photoinitiating ability was compared with the traditional photoinitiator (PI) ethyl (2,4,6-trimethyl benzoyl) phenyl phosphinate (TPO-L) by real-time FTIR with UV exposure at 365 nm. Photopolymer composition based on a mixture of urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA) and tripropylene glycol diacrylate (TPGDA) resulted in a similar final conversion of about 70 % using either CD-PI or TPO-L. Nevertheless, it appeared homogeneous in the case of compositions processed with CD-PI, while those made with TPO-L were heterogeneous as shown by two glass transition temperatures. Moreover, the migration rate of CD-PI in the cured samples was lower in comparison with those samples using TPO-L as PI.

Recent Advances in Monocomponent Visible Light Photoinitiating Systems Based on Sulfonium Salts

During the last decades, multicomponent photoinitiating systems have been the focus of intense research efforts, especially for the design of visible light photoinitiating systems. Although highly reactive three-component and even four-component photoinitiating systems have been designed, the complexity to elaborate such mixtures has incited researchers to design monocomponent Type II photoinitiators. Using this approach, the photosensitizer and the radical/cation generator can be combined within a unique molecule, greatly simplifying the elaboration of the photocurable resins. In this field, sulfonium salts are remarkable photoinitiators but these structures lack absorption in the visible range. Over the years, various structural modifications have been carried out in order to redshift their absorptions in the visible region. In this work, an overview of the different sulfonium salts activable under visible light and reported to date is proposed.

4-Methyl-7-((2-((5-methyl-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)thio)ethyl)thio)-coumarin

The novel compound 4-methyl-7-((2-((5-methyl-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-yl)thio)ethyl)thio)-coumarin is obtained in good yield via a two-step protocol; that is, initial synthesis of the reagent 2-((2-chloroethyl)thio)-5-methyl-1,3,4-thiadiazole followed by alkylation of 7-mercapto-4-methylcoumarin. The product’s structure is assigned by 1D and 2D NMR experiments and is confirmed by single-crystal XRD.