Typical bimolecular photoinitiators (PIs) for radical polymerization of acrylates show only poor photoreactivity because of the unwanted effect of back electron transfer. Therefore, a PI system consisting of benzaldoxime esters and 4-methyl benzophenone was investigated by photo-differential scanning calorimetry experiments. Surprisingly, reactivities are comparable to that of classical monomolecular Type I PIs like Darocur 1173, probably because of an energy transfer from the triplet state of the benzophenone-based sensitizer to the oxime ester initiator. Furthermore, sufficient thermal stability was proven by TGA and storage stability experiments of a resin formulation under elevated temperature. V C 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: [5865][5866][5867][5868][5869][5870][5871] 2010