Photochemistry has been playing a central role in the synthetic polymer community. Aromatic ketones, examples of which include benzophenone, thioxanthone, camphorquinone, among others, are renowned for their excellent optical characteristics and have been extensively taken advantage of photochemically induction of polymerization processes. Of particular interest is thioxanthone due to its adaptability for bearing different functionalities and applications in various modes of photopolymerization which accomplishes photoinitiation in conjunction with other co-initiator compounds; a behavior that is referred to as bi-molecular photoinitiation. In this paper, we review the photochemistry of thioxanthonebased systems and their use in different modes of photoinitiated polymerizations. Citing examples from literature, the development of various photoinitiating systems based on thioxanthones along with an understanding of their mechanistic behavior has been elucidated in advance.Scheme 1 Typical representation of the photolysis of the radical photoinitiators based on Type I (top) and Type II (bottom) systems on the example of a benzoin derivative and thioxanthone, respectively.Scheme 3 Synthesis of thioxanthones by condensation of thiosalicylic acid and aromatic compounds in the presence of concentrated sulfuric acid.