Naphthalimide based methacrylated photoinitiators in radical and cationic photopolymerization under visible light

The abilities of two naphthalimide derivatives with a methacryloyl group to initiate, when incorporated in multi-component systems, a ring-opening polymerization of epoxides and a radical polymerization of acrylates under different irradiation sources (e.g. very soft halogen lamp irradiation, laser diode at 457 nm, laser diode at 405 nm and blue LED bulb at 462 nm) have been investigated. One of them is particularly efficient for the cationic and radical photopolymerization of an epoxide/acrylate blend in a one-step hybrid cure and leads to the formation of an interpenetrated polymer network IPN (30 s for getting tack free coatings). The migration stability of one of these naphthalimide derivatives is found to be excellent in the cured polyacrylates and IPNs. The photochemical mechanisms are studied by steady state photolysis, fluorescence, cyclic voltammetry, electron spin resonance spin trapping and laser flash photolysis techniques.