Abstract
The bulk photopolymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) with primary arylsilane (e.g., phenylsilane) and various primary alkylsilanes (e.g., benzylsilane, 3-phenoxyphenyl-1-silabutane, 3-naphthyl-1-silabutane, and 3-chlorophenyl-1-silabutane) was performed to produce poly(MMA)s containing the corresponding silyl moiety as an end group. It was found for the phenylsilane that while the polymerization yields increased and then decreased with a turning point at the molar ratio of MMA:silane=10:1 as the relative silane concentration increases, the polymer molecular weights decreased, and the TGA residue yields and the relative intensities of SiH IR stretching bands increased with increment of molar ratio of silane over MMA. The photopolymerization yield of MMA with the arylsilane was found to be higher than those with the alkylsilanes and without the silanes. Thus, the silanes seemed to significantly influence on the photopolymerization as both chain initiation and chain transfer agents.