UV and Visible Light Acrylate Photopolymerisation Initiated by Nitrogen- or Carbon-Doped Titanium Dioxide

Abstract

Summary Nitrogen and carbon doped titania powders initiate acrylate polymerisation upon UV excitation. Time resolved photovoltage measurements afford surface charge carrier lifetimes of 7–8 ms for undoped and N-doped titania, whereas 12 ms are observed for the C-doped semiconductor. These values correlate with the observation that the polymerisation rate constants are similar for titania or N-doped titania but about two times larger for the C-doped material. Wavelength dependent polymerisation experiments indicate that visible light polymerisation is possible only with carbon-doped titania. This suggests that hole relaxation to dopant-centered surface states is much more efficient in nitrogen-doped titania. These experimental findings are in accord with the assumption that polymerisation is initiated by hole oxidation of the acrylate.