Photoinitiator quenching rate constants

Electron Rate Constants and Quenching Rate Constants 11 / 177 TABLE 6. ELECTRON TRANSFER RATE CONSTANTS (k.) BETWEEN PHOTOSENSITIZERS AND CATIONIC PHOTOINITIATORS AND... 

Oxygen has two possible interactions during the polymerization process [94], and these reactions are illustrated in Fig. 2. The first of these is a quenching of the excited triplet state of the initiator. When this quenching occurs the initiator will absorb the light and move to its excited state, but it will not form the radical or radicals that initiate the polymerization. A reduction in the quantum yield of the photoinitiator will be observed. The second interaction is the reaction with carbon based polymerizing radicals to form less reactive peroxy radicals. The rate constant for the formation of peroxy radicals has been found to be of the order of 109 1/mol-s [94], Peroxy radicals are known to have rate constants for reaction with methyl methacrylate of 0.241/mol-s [100], while polymer radicals react with monomeric methyl methacrylate with a rate constant of 5151/mol-s [100], This difference implies that peroxy radicals are nearly 2000 time less reactive. Obviously, this indicates that even a small concentration of oxygen in the system can severely reduce the polymerization rate. 

The high rate constants for chemical quenching of triplet ketones by amines provide two sidelights of considerable importance. Photoinitiation of polymerization has received widespread and varied industrial applications. One problem is that many vinyl monomers quench triplet ketones very rapidly either by charge transfer or energy transfer mechanisms, without forming any radicals. Most solvents cannot compete with the olefins for the triplet ketone. However, tri-ethylamine quenches at rates close to diffusion-controlled, so that radical formation and polymerization initiation are quite efficient 158>. 

Rate Constants of Cleavage, Electron Transfer and Monomer Quenching in Radical Photoinitiators 11-170... 

TABLE 1. RATE CONSTANTS OF CLEAVAGE, ELECTRON TRANSFER AND MONOMER QUENCHING IN RADICAL PHOTOINITIATORS ... 

---