Sulphur Ylide Initiated Photopolymerization of Methyl Methacrylate

Abstract

Solution polymerization of methyl methacrylate was carried out in the presence of visible light (440 nm) using 3-nitrophenacyl dimethyl sulfonium ylide as a photoinitiator at 30ºC. The initiator and monomer exponent values were calculated to be 0.49 and 1.0 respectively. An average value of K_p²/K_T was 2.0 x 10^–2. The polymerization was restarted in the presence of benzoquinone. Kinetic data and ESR studies indicate that the overall polymerization takes place by radical mechanism.