Sugar overcomes oxygen inhibition in photoinitiated free radical polymerization

Photo-initiated radical polymerization has several advantages that qualify this process for application in many industrial fields, but suffers from oxygen (O2) inhibition. The prohibitive cost of existing methods to prevent O2 inhibition has hampered their widespread use in industrial applications involving free radical polymerization in air. A novel approach based on an enzymatic pathway in which glucose oxidase acts as catalyst for glucose oxidation using O2 is described to overcome O2 inhibition of radical polymerizations.