Dave Sharpea, Andrew F. Parsonsa and Phil Taylorb a Department of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK b ICI Paints, Wexham Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL2 5DS

The modern radical chemist has a wide range of methods for radical initiation of chain  reactions. Many of these systems involve metal species which either have weak bonds which are easily broken to give metal-centred  radicals or, alternatively, metal complexes can undergo redox reactions with organic substrates to generate organic substrates.

Many of these metal-based initiation systems while extemely efficient are not widely used in industry due to problems of toxicity often coupled with the difficulty of removal of waste metal byproducts.

This project aims to develop new non-metal radical initators, with specific application to the polymerisation of alkenes with a view to implementation in the formulation of paints.

Current paint technology involves autoxidatively initiated polymerisation catalysed by cobalt(II) acetate.

We hope to develop simple non-toxic, non-metal initiation systems based upon autoxidative processes.

Autoxidation is a particularly mild method of generating radicals as it only requires the presence of air. This is demonstrated by oxidative processes in the spoiling of food in air; it is such a facile process that many foodstuffs contain added antioxidants to prolong their shelf life.

The three main areas of interest for us are the use of ; sulfites, phosphites and ligated boryl complexes. We hope  to use these autoxidatively produced radicals to initate  the polymerisation of a wide range of monomers.

© Department of Chemistry, University of York.