ABSTRACT

Maleimide compounds have been known for some time in organic chemistry and have found significant use in polymer chemistry as monomers, crosslinking agents, and matrix components for high performance coatings, engineering thermoplastics, and composite materials. Recent investigations have demonstrated their utility as comonomers in novel photopolymerizable donor/acceptor formulations and as photoinitiators for photopolymerization of standard acrylic-based coatings formulations. Herein we will discuss photopolymerization of N-aliphatic and N-aromatic substituted maleimides in the light of basic photophysical properties and photochemical reactions which are characteristic of N-substituted maleimide derivatives.