Ahmadi, M., Göschl, M., Liska, R., & Stampfl, J. (2022, September 27). A Study on Photopolymerization Kinetic Effects on the Microstructure of Phase separated (Meth)acrylates [Conference Presentation]. MSE 2022, Darmstadt, Germany.
The approach of characterizing the onset of phase separation (PS) and gel time, as well as the effect of
tailoring those parameters on the (meth)acrylate-based microstructures, are the subjects of this study.
Further to the studies on the copolymerization of marginally incompatible oligomer/monomer
photocurable systems, different degrees of turbidity were observed in the photopolymerization of a
diluted aliphatic urethane diacrylate oligomer (UDA; Miramer 5216) and bisphenol-A-ethoxylate
dimethacrylate monomers (Bis-EMA; SR348C). That light transmission drop has been a result of domain
formation through photopolymerization induced phase separation (PIPS) phenomena which is of great
interest in tailoring the mechanical properties of polymers used in additive manufacturing technologies.
Not only the thermodynamics of the polymerization reactions affects the phase separation, but it is also
greatly affected by the reaction kinetics as well as the network formation mechanism. Altering the phase separation
development time “PSDT” which is the time at which phase separation begins until the time of getting
extensively suppressed by gelation, is the most deterministic parameter to adjust the microstructure of
such structure:
𝑃𝑆𝐷𝑇
(𝑠) = 𝐺𝑒𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑡(𝑠) − 𝑃ℎ𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑡(𝑠)
A bespoke setup has been designed to achieve PS onset, which is capable of accurately recording the
declining point from the complete transparency of resin during polymerization. Also, the crossover of
storage and loss modulus at a constant frequency of 1 Hz obtained by IR-photorheometer was taken as
gel point. The PSDT values were calculated and given in detail for different irradiation intensities as well
as different compositions of the materials in presence of 1% 2,4,6-trimethylbenzoyl diphenylphosphine
oxide (TPO) as the photoinitiator. Photopolymerizing an equal proportion of components resulted in a
PSDT of +2.83 seconds, which compared to the other ratios showed higher opacity and fracture
toughness. Moreover, a gel point onset recorded by photorheometer was found to be nearly identical for
all compositions, which can be attributed to the component's similar functionality, followed by quick
polymerization and shrinkage. Furthermore, the fracture surface of altered PSDT samples was subjected
to qualitative (phase imaging) and quantitative (pinpoint nanomechanical) modes of atomic force (figure
1) microscopy for further study of the effect of PSDT on microstructure, and the resulting structure
properties observations were described and analyzed.