Photopolymerization of methyl methacrylate by use of a quinoline–bromine charge-transfer complex as the photoinitiator

Polymerization of MMA was carried out in presence of visible light (440 nm), quinoline-bromine charge-transfer complex being used as the photoinitiator. The initiator exponent was observed to be 0.5 up to 0.014 M initiator concentration; when chloroform was used as the solvent, the monomer exponent was found to be unity. The polymerization was inhibited in presence of hydroquinone but little inhibitory effect was observed in the presence of air. An average value of k²_p/k_t for this photopolymerization system was found to be (1.08 ± 0.22) × 10^-2. Kinetic and other evidence indicates that the overall polymerization takes place by a radical mechanism.