Monitoring photopolymerization reactions with optical pyrometry

Abstract

This article describes the development of optical pyrometry (OP) as a new analytical technique for the continuous monitoring of the progress of both free-radical and cationic photopolymerizations. The method is rapid, reproducible, and very easy to implement. A temperature profile of a photopolymerization can be obtained. Preliminary studies have shown that the temperatures of some polymerizing monomers can easily reach temperatures in excess of 250 °C. The effects of the mass and reactivity of the monomer, light intensity, structures, and concentrations of the photoinitiators and monomers as well as the presence or absence of oxygen on various free-radical and cationic photopolymerizations were examined with this method. Coupling of real-time infrared spectroscopy with OP provides a convenient method for simultaneously monitoring both the chemical conversion and the temperature of a photopolymerization. This combined technique affords new insights into the effects of temperature-induced autoacceleration on the course of photopolymerizations.