Development of Acrylate and Methacrylate Polymer Networks for Controlled Release by Photopolymerization Technology

Polymulti(meth)acrylates belong to a class of materials known as highly crosslinked polymer networks. These insoluble polymers are formed by free radical polymerization of multi-(meth)acrylate monomers. Multi(meth)acrylate monomers have a variety of structures, as indi­ cated in Fig. 1. Di(meth)acrylate monomers are tetrafunctional in that their two double bonds may participate in a total of four radical propagation steps. Similarly, tri(meth)acrylate monomers are hexafunctional.