What is Photoinitiator ? 

It’s a chem­i­cal com­pound that ini­ti­ates or acti­vates the dry­ing process of adhe­sives, inks and coat­ing. It has the abil­i­ty to absorb light and has the abil­i­ty to change the phys­i­cal prop­er­ties of light to cre­ate a chem­i­cal ener­gy. The change in light’s wave­length is made by cre­at­ing a chem­i­cal reac­tion either by poly­con­den­sa­tion or poly­mer­iza­tion. When a com­bi­na­tion of light and pho­toini­tia­tors is used, this process is called radi­a­tion cur­ing or pho­topoly­mer­iza­tion. This process con­verts a liq­uid sol­u­ble into a hard cross-linked net­work of poly­mers. This dry­ing process is also referred to as the cur­ing process. Pho­toini­tia­tors react with dif­fer­ent wave­length of the light, specif­i­cal­ly in the UV range to deliv­er the desired effect. A pho­topoly­mer­iza­tion reac­tion is cre­at­ed, when right type of light’s wave­length is exposed to the pho­toini­tia­tors. This expo­sure releas­es free-rad­i­­cal, which fur­ther ini­ti­ate a bind­ing or cross-link­ing process. This radi­a­­tion-cured coat­ing has mul­ti­ple appli­ca­tions due to its robust and resilient nature. It can be used as a pro­tec­tive sub­strate for plas­tic, met­al and wood.

Types of Photoinitiators 

The impact of cur­ing-effect is high­ly depen­dent on the type of pho­toini­tia­tors you select.

Type 1 : Free-Radical 

This type of pho­toini­tia­tors ini­ti­ates a uni­mol­e­c­u­lar reac­tion that requires no assis­tance from oth­er com­pound to gen­er­ate the dry­ing process. This is the most pop­u­lar way of radi­a­tion cur­ing as the process isn’t depen­dent on oth­er ini­tia­tors or com­pound. Gen­er­al­ly, a UV range of 300-400 nm is used to gen­er­ate a cur­ing effect.

Type 2 : Cation­ic Photoinitiators 

A bimol­e­c­u­lar reac­tion and assis­tance of oth­er com­pound (or co-ini­­ti­a­­tors) is required to ini­ti­ate a reac­tion process. After the absorp­tion of UV light, Brön­st­ed or Lewis acids are usu­al­ly the co-ini­­ti­a­­tors used for the cata­ton­ic poly­mer­iza­tion of sur­faces like, epoxy or resins. Cur­ing process is required for seal­ing, coat­ing, med­ical bond­ing, dig­i­tal print­ing, screen­ing and flex­o­graph­ic process­es. Qual­i­ty chem­i­cals are required to ini­ti­ate an effec­tive chem­i­cal reac­tion. The type of chem­i­cal you use, will impact the qual­i­ty of your end-prod­uct. For effec­tive light-absorp­­tion and coat­ing abil­i­ty, get in touch with, Wat­son Inter­na­tion­al. We pro­vide qual­i­ty and cost-effec­­tive prod­ucts that can be used in dif­fer­ent indus­tries such as phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal, cos­met­ic, and elec­tron­ic food, etc. All our prod­ucts are safe­ly han­dled and deliv­ered to our clients, keep­ing nec­es­sary safe­ty guide­lines in mind. Our chem­i­cal solu­tions are devel­oped by R&D com­pa­nies of FCAD group. Our new line of chem­i­cals includes, Halofug­i­none, cus­tom nucleotides, Epoxypropanoxy­car­bazole, cus­tom syn­the­sis of car­bo­hy­drates and more. For order place­ment or more details about our prod­ucts, call at +1 (909)345 0760-31 or fill the inquiry form.