Are photoinitiators required for photocuring?

Photocuring technology refers to the absorption of specific wavelength photons by photoinitiator under the irradiation of light, generating free radicals or cations, triggering polymerization and cross-linking reaction of monomer and oligomer, generating polymer with mesh structure in a very short time, and then realizing curing. And the photoinitiator is a kind of absorption of ultraviolet or visible radiation energy, so that the oligomer and diluent quickly from liquid into solid compounds, is the core component of the photocuring material.

Photoinitiator plays an important role in the production of photocurable materials, but the amount of use is not large, the amount of use is about 3%-5% of the photocurable materials, and the cost is about 11%.

Photoinitiator is a kind of material that can obtain radiation energy and produce chemical reaction under corresponding initiation to form active intermediates (cations or free radicals) that can generate polymerization function. Because of the difference in radiation energy, it can be divided into UV initiator (uv region is generally 250-420 nm) and visible initiator (UV region is 400-700 nm). Photoinitiators are required to have a high absorption rate in the lamp emission spectrum region, good solubility in the product formulation, high quantum yield, high photoreactivity, low odor, low toxicity, no yellowing due to migrating residues in the polymer, and good storage stability.