Squarylium dye and onium salts as highly sensitive photoradical generators for blue light

2-Ethyl-2-(hydroxymethyl)-1,3-propanediol triacrylate was polymerized in the presence of squarylium dye and various onium salts. The onium salts under study are commercially available or may be easily synthesized and are characterized by light absorption properties below 300 nm and generate phenyl radicals upon blue light exposure. Due to these interesting properties the triacrylate polymerization can be efficiently carried out with or without the presence of any additional photoinitiator. The chemical mechanisms are investigated by steady state photolysis and nanosecond laser flash photolysis experiments. The new photoinitiators yielded a higher visible light photoinitiating polymerization effect than the commercial photoinitiator: camphorquinone/ethyl p-(dimethylamino)benzoate and camphorquinone/N-methyldiethanolamine under experimental conditions.