Photoinitiated Cationic Polymerization of 3-Ethyl-3-(phenoxymethyl)-oxetane in Nitrogen Atmosphere

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Abstract
The photoinitiated cationic polymerizations of 3-ethyl-3-(phenoxymethyl)-oxetane (PhO) and phenyl glycidyl ether (PhE) with diphenyl-4-thiophenoxyphenyl sulfonium hexafluoroantimonate as the cationic photoinitiator were carried out in air and nitrogen atmospheres. A real time FT-IR method was used to estimate the polymerization rates. The number-average molecular weight (M n) of the resulting polymers were measured by gel permeation chromatography. In nitrogen, the photopolymerization rate of PhO was more than four times greater than in air, while there was no essential difference for PhE. The M n of the PhO polymer increased from 13,900 (in air) to 61,200 (in nitrogen) at the peak top. The fast polymerization mechanism in nitrogen was postulated to be the radical-assisted decomposition of the sulfonium salt.