Investigation of curing properties of α - Methoxyacrylate monomer

The acrylate or methacrylate (MA) group which is often used in photo-crosslinking systems requires high energy or photoinitiator because of its low photoreactivity under 365 nm. In order to increase the photoreactivity of acrylate group at 365 nm, we designed and synthesized the α-methoxyacrylate (aMA) with controlled HOMO energy level of double bond. The compounds (Hx-aMA and Hx-MA) were synthesized from 1,6-hexandiol (Hx) via esterification reaction. The degree of conversion of the synthesized compounds were calculate from the FTIR spectral change after UV irradiation of 0 to 50 J/cm² at 365 nm. The photoreactivity of aMA crosslinker was about 3 times higher than that of MA. A high photoreactive aMA RM (reactive mesogen) can be utilize to bio-applications, display or optical component applications where the use of photoinitiators are limited.