Revealing the photoredox potential of azulene derivatives as panchromatic photoinitiators in various light-initiated polymerization processes

Herein, the application of previously unknown azulene derivatives as effective panchromatic photosensitizers in the visible light range in the initiation of light-induced cationic and free-radical polymerization processes was investigated. The presented azulene derivatives showed a high photoreodox potential allowing the use of these compounds in two-component and three-component photoinitiating systems for various photopolymerization processes. In addition, within the scope of this manuscript, the effectiveness of using photoinitiating systems containing the proposed azulene derivatives in 3D printing to obtain three-dimensional polymer structures has been confirmed and for the first time proven in the literature.