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Dear Colleagues,

With the emphasis on resource and energy conservation as well as environmental issues, there has been a move toward polymerization processes that can be carried out under safer conditions. These issues can be addressed using photopolymerization. Photopolymers are appealing materials that have now found applications in dentistry, coatings, and adhesives, but also in emerging fields such as 3D and 4D printing. Although photopolymerization was traditionally done in the UV range, recently, a great deal of interest has been devoted to developing visible light photoinitiators, addressing the manipulator safety concerns but also offering a broader variety of structures that can be used as photoinitiators. Parallel to this, with regard to the toxicity concerns raised by the use of transition metals, organic compounds that can act as photoinitiators of polymerization are actively being researched by both the academic and industrial communities. Researchers in the field are cordially invited to submit relevant manuscripts concerning the development of new photoinitiators of polymerization for a Special Issue entitled “Photopolymerization and Photopolymers: Organic Dyes as a Unique Tool of Synthesis”, within the journal Polymers. Perspectives and reviews in this active research field are also welcome.

Dr. Frédéric Dumur
Dr. Guillaume Noirbent
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

photopolymerization
photocatalysis
organic photoinitiators
photoinduced electron transfer
photochemistry
green chemistry
visible light
organocatalysis

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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10 pages, 3572 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Water-Soluble Visible Light Sensitive Photoinitiating System Based on Charge Transfer Complexes for the 3D Printing of Hydrogels

by Hong Chen, Mehdi Vahdati, Pu Xiao, Frédéric Dumur and Jacques Lalevée

Polymers 2021, 13(18), 3195; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/polym13183195 - 21 Sep 2021

Cited by 30 | Viewed by 2613

Abstract

The development of visible-light 3D printing technology by using water-soluble initiating systems has attracted widespread attention due to their potential applications in the manufacture of hydrogels. Besides, at present, the preparation of water-soluble photoinitiators suitable for visible light irradiation (such as LEDs) still remains a challenge. Therefore, this work is devoted to developing water-soluble photoinitiators (PI)/photoinitiating systems (PIS) upon irradiation with a LED @ 405 nm. In detail, a new water-slightly-soluble chalcone derivative dye [(E)-3-(4-(dimethylamino) phenyl)-1-(4-(2-(2-(2-methoxyethoxy) ethoxy) ethoxy) phenyl) prop-2-en-1-one] was synthesized here and used as a PI with a water-soluble coinitiator, i.e., triethanolamine (TEA) which was also used as an electron donor. When combined together, a charge transfer complex (CTC) formed immediately which exhibited excellent initiating ability for the free radical photopolymerization of poly(ethyleneglycol)diacrylate (PEG-DA). In light of the powerful CTC effect, the [dye-TEA] CTC could not only exhibit enhanced water solubility and mechanical properties but could also be effectively applied for 3D printing. This CTC system is environmentally friendly and cost-saving which demonstrates a great potential to prepare hydrogels via photopolymerization. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photopolymerization and Photopolymers: Organic Dyes as a Unique Tool of Synthesis)

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Review

Jump to: Research

42 pages, 26914 KiB

Open AccessReview

High-Performance Photoinitiating Systems for LED-Induced Photopolymerization

by Shaohui Liu, Timur Borjigin, Michael Schmitt, Fabrice Morlet-Savary, Pu Xiao and Jacques Lalevée

Polymers 2023, 15(2), 342; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/polym15020342 - 09 Jan 2023

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 2983

Abstract

Currently, increasing attention has been focused on light-emitting diodes (LEDs)-induced photopolymerization. The common LEDs (e.g., LED at 365 nm and LED at 405 nm) possess narrow emission bands. Due to their light absorption properties, most commercial photoinitiators are sensitive to UV light and cannot be optimally activated under visible LED irradiation. Although many photoinitiators have been designed for LED-induced free radical polymerization and cationic polymerization, there is still the issue of the mating between photoinitiators and LEDs. Therefore, the development of novel photoinitiators, which could be applied under LED irradiation, is significant. Many photoinitiating systems have been reported in the past decade. In this review, some recently developed photoinitiators used in LED-induced photopolymerization, mainly in the past 5 years, are summarized and categorized as Type Ⅰ photoinitiators, Type Ⅱ photoinitiators, and dye-based photoinitiating systems. In addition, their light absorption properties and photoinitiation efficiencies are discussed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Photopolymerization and Photopolymers: Organic Dyes as a Unique Tool of Synthesis)

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