A Second-Generation Chameleon N-Heterocyclic Carbene-Borane Coinitiator for the Visible-Light Oxygen-Resistant Photopolymerization of Both Organic and Water-Compatible Resins

N-Heterocyclic carbene-boranes (NHC-boranes, NHCBs) were recently described as efficient coinitiators for the visible light photopolymerization of hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) in the presence of water. In this work, a new, more water-soluble, NHC-borane-2,4-dimethyl-1,2,4,5-tetrazol-3-ylidene borane-has been synthesized, and its efficiency in three-component systems (dye (Acridine Orange), disulfide, and NHC-borane coinitiators) for the polymerization of methacrylate resins under visible light under air has been studied. In fluid resins this new photoinitiating system (PIS) gives better results than the one previously studied. More importantly, this system is competitive with the widely used type II system-camphorquinone/4-(dimethylamino)benzonitrile (DMABN)-for the polymerization of methacrylate resins but better for the photopolymerization of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) leading to hydrogels, where the former PIS fails. The excellent ability of the NHC-boranes, and especially the new one, to be used as photopolymerization coinitiators has been analyzed by laser flash photolysis (LFP). The rate constants for elementary reactions of the three boranes and their derived NHC-boryl radicals obtained by LFP correlated well with the molecular modeling data and show that the key for the observed reactivity is the ability of the tetrazolydinyl NHC-borane to repair the peroxyl radicals formed by the reactions of the macroradicals with oxygen.