Seyede Fateme Khalkhali - Iran Polymer and petrochemical institute of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Mohammad Atai - Iran Polymer and petrochemical institute of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Azizollah Nodehi - Iran Polymer and petrochemical institute of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Polymerization of acrylic acid (AA) and Itaconic acid (IA), the most common monomers in the glass-ionomer cements was accomplished through precipitation photopolymerization in acetone. A 25 wt% solution of AA / IA (70/30 by weight) was prepared. The polymerization was carried under 4 hours light irradiation by Two UV LED lamps with 360 nm wavelength. The effects of concentration of diphenyl(2,4,6-trimethyl benzoyl)phosphine oxide (TPO) photoinitiator (2.5 mol% and 4 mol% ) and temperature (298 K and 323 K) on the conversion and copolymer composition were investigated by weighing and ˡH-NMR. The results showed a significant increase in conversion and mole fraction of itaconic acid in the copolymer.

photopolymerization, poly(acrylic acid- co-itaconic acid), photoinitiator