UV curing of epoxy functional hybrid silicones

Several epoxy difunctional hybrid alkylene-silicone telomers with different silicone characters and organic spacers (linkers) were prepared via the platinum-catalyzed polyhydrosilylation of a,?-dihydrosiloxanes and a,?-dienes. Thereafter, the resulting Si?H-terminated prepolymers were terminally functionalized with 4-vinyl-1,2-epoxycyclohexane or allyl glycidyl ether. In the presence of a lipophilic cationic photoinitiator, the terminally epoxy-functionalized hybrid alkylenesilicone telomers were photopolymerized to give crosslinked, soft, elastomeric, and transparent films. The progress of the photoinitiated cationic ring-opening epoxide polymerizations was monitored using optical pyrometry. Potential applications for these novel photocurable epoxy-functional telomers are as modifiers for UV curable coatings, printing inks, adhesives, and release coatings. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012