In‐line monitoring of UV photopolymerization with a quartz crystal resonator

Abstract

An in‐line monitoring device using a quartz crystal resonator for thin film polymerization was proposed, and its performance has been evaluated by implementing in the UV polymerization of 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate with a photoinitiator of 1‐chloroanthraquinone. Because the variation of resonant resistance of the resonator is proportional to the square root of viscosity change that is closely related to the polymerization degree, the resistance can be used as a measure of the polymerization degree. The resistance measurements were compared with the outcome of instrumental analyses of polymerization degree using an FTIR spectrometer and a gel permeation chromatograph. The experimental results showed that the resistance measurements were consistent with the experimental outcome of the instrumental analyses, and this indicates the effectiveness of the proposed device. Owing to the simplicity and availability of the resonator system, its wide utilization in the monitoring of a variety of film polymerization processes, including photoresistor application, is expected. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 2428–2439, 2006

Monitoring photopolymerization of trimethylolpropane triacrylate using a quartz crystal resonator

“…Thus, monitoring the resistance can be used for the measurement of monomer amount in a polymerization process. The change of the resonance resistance has been observed in the previous study,34 but the variation in this study is more stable to analyze. For the calculation of monomer amount from the measured resistance, the relationship between the resistance and monomer amount was experimentally yielded as given in Figure 5.…”

“…For example, the resonator was applied to monitor gas‐phase polymerization,29 crystallization,30–32 and condensation processes involving the phase change 33. In photopolymerization, the resonator was used in an in‐line monitoring the UV photopolymerization process34 and in measuring the surface adsorption of surfactant used for the surface modification of glycidyl methacrylate 35…”

“…When the quartz crystal resonator was used in the studies of polymerization process, the variation of resonant frequency has been monitored to detect the variation of polymer amount built on the electrode surface. The reduction of resonant frequency was used to determine the amounts of polymerization of polypyrrole,25–28, 36 polyaniline,37–39 polyacrylate21, 34, 40–43 and polystyrene,29 and enzyme and protein 23. In addition, the dissipation monitoring of the quartz crystal resonator was applied to the polymerization 35, 44–46.…”

Measurement of thermal property of polystyrene using dual quartz crystal resonators

“…This sensitive detection has been used to measure the adsorbed amounts of a specific components in gas [4,5] and liquid phases [6]. It also detects the beginning moment of crystal formation in crystallization processes [7][8][9][10] and the polymerization degree in UV polymerization [11,12]. When a thin film of polymer is coated on the electrode surface of the quartz crystal resonator, the viscoelasticity variation of the film due to its temperature change can be detected by monitoring the resonant frequency of the resonator [13,14].…”

On-line measurement of monomer concentration in UV photopolymerization using a quartz crystal resonator

“…In photopolymerization, the resonator was employed in an on-line monitoring the UV photopolymerization [22] and in measuring the surface adsorption of surfactant used for the surface modification of glycidyl methacrylate [23].…”