Polymerization photoinitiators that can be activated under low light intensity and in the visible range are being pursued by both the academic and industrial communities. To efficiently harvest light and initiate a polymerization process, dyes with high molar extinction coefficients in the visible range are ideal candidates. In this field, Donor-acceptor Stenhouse Adducts (DASA) which belong to a class of recently discovered organic photochromic molecules still lack practical applications. In this work, a series of DASA-based dyes are proposed as photoinitiators for the free radical polymerization of (meth)acrylates upon exposure to a near infrared light (laser diode at 785 nm).
Keywords: DASA; Stenhouse adducts; cationic polymerization; free radical polymerization; photoinitiators; photopolymerization; push-pull; visible light.