Application of a new model and measurement technique for dynamic shrinkage and conversion of multi-acrylates photopolymerized at different UV intensities

We have recently developed a new model and measurement technique for the dynamics of conversion and shrinkage during the photopolymerization of multi-acrylates. The model development and the application to different UV intensities were investigated in this paper. In this new model, instead of assigning the excess volume entirely as excess free volume, it is partitioned into both free and occupied volume components. The new measurement technique allowed us to collect real-time conversion and shrinkage data simultaneously and synchronously to verify our new model. When utilized on a broad range of incident UV intensities (3, 16 and 130 mW/cm²), there was considerable success for predicting conversion for all the cases, but the result is less satisfactory for shrinkage prediction at the highest UV intensity. Possible explanations of this discrepancy are discussed.