Photoinitiators

Photoinitiators are especially suited to produce polymers and coatings via a radical polymerization process. These reactions are simply triggered by a photon, hn, and proceed under the formation of thousands of new bonds. A broad range of technical applications have already been established but an extension into new fields like 3D printing or materials for medical applications requires also the development of new photoinitiators. Acylphosphine oxides are especially interesting because radiation in the visible range with weak light sources like LED’s leads to the formation of a highly reactive phosphinoyl and acyl radical:

RPO(COR’)₂ + hn -> RPO(COR‘)^· + R‘CO^·

We are especially interested in compounds which can be used for surface coatings of all sorts of materials (wood, glass, leather, plastics) and which can be used as highly efficient photochemical cross-linkers for the synthesis of new materials. A special challenge is that the synthesis must be suited for large-scale preparations.