PROPENYL ETHERS .2. STUDY OF THE PHOTOINITIATED CATIONIC POLYMERIZATION OF PROPENYL ETHER MONOMERS

The results of studies of the photoinitiated cationic polymerization of mono-, di-, and multifunctional propenyl ethers are reported in this article. Real-time infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning photocalorimetry were used to determine the reactivity of the monomers with respect to each other and in relation to other types of cationically polymerizable monomers. Propenyl ethers were observed to be highly reactive monomers in photoinitiated cationic polymerization undergoing very high conversions to polymer at very short irradiation times. Attempts were also made to correlate the structures of these monomers with their reactivity as well as to examine the effects of various experimental parameters on their photopolymerization.