Oxygen Inhibition of Radical Polymerizations Investigated with the Rheometric Quartz Crystal Microbalance

C. Joshua Yeh, Michael Hu, Kenneth R. Shull*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The use of the rheometric quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) as a quantitative cure monitor for photocuring systems was demonstrated. The technique requires the use of films with thicknesses in the micrometer range and is based on the direct measurement of the rheological properties of the film at a frequency of 15 MHz. To access curing processes much faster than the ∼1 s resolution of the QCM measurement, a rotating shutter system was designed to capture processes with a temporal resolution of ∼1 ms. The photocuring process was studied in both air and nitrogen environments and was applied to a traditional, radically polymerized acrylic system and a thiol-ene based system. Thiol-ene systems cured in oxygen reach comparable stiffnesses to those cured in nitrogen but take longer to cure and contain 1-2.5 wt % oxygen in the final materials. These results indicate that the QCM can be utilized as an effective photorheometric technique able to provide useful mechanistic insight into photoreactive processes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)5511-5518
Number of pages8
JournalMacromolecules
Volume51
Issue number15
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 14 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Organic Chemistry
  • Polymers and Plastics
  • Inorganic Chemistry
  • Materials Chemistry

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