Photostabilization and cure kinetics of UV-curable optical resins containing photostabilizers

The photostabilization and cure kinetics of UV-curable, optical resins containing various formulations of photostabilizers were investigated to determine the system with the highest cure conversion and durability. Photo-DSC analysis revealed that increasing the concentration of a UV absorber (UVA) decreased both the cross-link density and the cure rate due to competition for the incident photons between the photoinitiator and the UVA, whereas including a hindered amine light stabilizer (HALS) hardly affected either the cure conversion or the cure rate due to its very low absorption of 365 nm. This result was confirmed by FTIR-ATR spectroscopy and UV-visible spectroscopy analyses. QUV ageing experiments showed that the cure conversion and durability were the highest for the UVA/ HALS formulation at a ratio of 1 : 2, which is due to their synergistic action.