Thiuram disulfides reactivity

A wide variety of disulfide derivatives has been proposed and among them the most simple R-S-S-R are those mainly used. Many investigations are still being conducted to increase the reactivity and the ease of cleavable of the S-S bond [12, 21], Specific initiators include alcoyle disulfides 42, where R represents an aromatic group [49, 222], dithiobenzoyl disulfides 43 [223], dialkyl xanthogen disulfides 44 [122], and finally thiuram disulfides 45 [224] ... 

Actually, at this stage, it is interesting to compare both thiuram and nitroxyl systems. The former react under UV irradiation preferentially whereas the latter gave satisfactory results with thermal initiation. Even if the dithiocarbamyl 58 counter radical is not so reactive, it is able to favor the polymerization of monomers whereas nitroxyls are totally unreactive since they are not able to initiate the polymerizations. These are the only two notable differences between both methods. However, according to the literature, it seems that thiuram disulfides can be used for acrylates and methacrylates more easily than in the case of nitroxyls. 

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