Competitive photoenolization in the photochemistry of the free radical photoinitiator OXE02.

Authors

Saba Didarataee, Juan C Scaiano

Published in

RSC advances. Oct 06, 2026. Epub Oct 06, 2026.

Abstract

OXE02 is an oxime ester photoinitiator widely used in industrial photopolymerization, where radical generation proceeds through N-O bond cleavage. However, the presence of an o-methylbenzophenone moiety raises the possibility of a competing Norrish type II photoenolization pathway. In this study, we investigated whether photoenolization competes with the primary fragmentation process. The results of quantum yield measurements and transient absorbance spectroscopy provide strong evidence that photoenolization is a competing photochemical pathway, which can decrease the efficiency of radical generation and should therefore be considered when evaluating the photochemical performance of OXE02. While it has been reported that OXE02 shows anomalous photochemical behavior, in our hands OXE02 appears to follow the fundamental paradigms of photochemistry without any problem.

PMID:
42841000
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Oct 2026.

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