Dissolution of UV‐cured polymeric films: a fluorescence study

Abstract

Abstract A steady‐state fluorescence (SSF) technique was used for studying the dissolution of UV‐cured polymer films. These films are formed from poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) chains labelled with pyrene, which was introduced as a fluorescence probe to monitor the dissolution processes. The PMMA films of various ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDM) contents, cured by ultraviolet (UV) radiation, were dissolved in chloroform–heptane (20 : 80, v/v) mixtures. Dissolution of the films was monitored in real‐time by the change in pyrene fluorescence intensity, I P , in the solvent mixture. It was observed that the maximum pyrene intensity, I P∞ , increased above a critical EGDM content, which was attributed to the formation of a percolation cluster, i.e. UV‐cured films hardly dissolve above this critical EGDM content in the film. Desorption rates, D d , were measured for films prepared with various EGDM contents. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.