4. Photoamorinated polymerization kinetics

One of the common features of all photopolymerizable systems is the speed of the process, which takes place in a fraction of a second under intense illumination. It is generally difficult to follow these ultra-rapid reactions quantitatively with a view to determining the fundamental kinetic parameters: polymerization rate, kinetic chain length, propagation rate constants (k _p ) and termination rate constants (k _t ). Time-resolved infrared spectroscopy (RTIR) [18] is currently the only method that can continuously record the evolution of the conversion rate as a function of exposure time in a sub-second time scale. This makes it possible to study the influence of chemical factors (photoinitiator, monomer, additives) and physical factors...