No abstract

Three-component photoinitiators comprised of an N-arylphthalimide, a diarylketone, and a tertiary amine were investigated for their initiation efficiency of acrylate polymerization. The use of an electron-deficient N-arylphthalimide resulted in a greater acrylate polymerization rate than an electron-rich N-arylphthalimide. Triplet energies of each N-arylphthalimide, determined from their phosphorescence spectra, and the respective rate constants for triplet quenching by the N-arylphthalimide derivatives (acquired via laser flash photolysis) indicated that an electron-proton transfer from an intermediate radical species to the N-arylphthalimide (not energy transfer from triplet sensitization) is responsible for generating the initiating radicals under the conditions and species concentrations used for polymerization.

Biofilms are the habitat of 95% of bacteria successfully protecting bacteria from many antibiotics. However, inhibiting biofilm formation is difficult in that it is a complex system involving the physical and chemical interaction of both substrate and bacteria. Focusing on the substrate surface and potential interactions with bacteria, we examined both physical and chemical properties of substrates coated with a series of phenyl acrylate monomer derivatives. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed smooth surfaces often approximating surgical grade steel. Induced biofilm growth of five separate bacteria on copolymer samples comprising varying concentrations of phenyl acrylate monomer derivatives evidenced differing degrees of biofilm resistance via optical microscopy. Using goniometric surface analyses, the van Oss-Chaudhury-Good equation was solved linear algebraically to determine the surface energy profile of each polymerized phenyl acrylate monomer derivative, two bacteria, and collagen. Based on the microscopy and surface energy profiles, a thermodynamic explanation for biofilm resistance is posited.

The propensity for ferrocene-alkyl chloride charge transfer complexes (CTCs) to photoinitiate free-radical polymerization of multifunctional acrylates was determined using photodifferential scanning calorimetry. Also, the effects of varying ferrocene (ferrocene, methoxyferrocene, and cyanoferrocene) and alkyl chloride (dichloromethane and benzyl chloride) derivatives were evaluated with regard to the overall polymerization rate and conversion. Furthermore, relative polymerization rates of traditional freeradical Type I and Type II photoinitiators were compared to those of the ferrocene-alkyl chloride CTCs. Semi-empirical quantum mechanical analysis of the complexation reaction was performed using PM3, indicating a thermodynamic preference of complexations involving benzyl chloride, and corroborated the reported complexation mechanism. In order to explain the varying polymerization rates, the association constants for each complex were determined, whereupon complexation of each ferrocene derivative with dichloromethane was found to be more facile than similar complexation with benzyl chloride due to steric considerations. Substituent effects were more pronounced for the benzyl chloride complexes relative to those involving dichloromethane where steric constraints caused deviation from the expected effect. Thus, the cyanoferrocene-benzyl chloride CTC was determined to be the most effective photoinitiator examined with regard to semi-empirical analysis, complexation kinetics, and polymerization rate.