PEW: Photopolymerization by evanescent waves. II. Revealing dramatic inhibiting effects of oxygen at submicrometer scale

A simplistic model of photopolymerization by evanescent waves (PEW) has been introduced in a previous paper. This model predicts a linear dependence of the polymerized thickness on the logarithm of exposure time. It provides the general trend of the experimental data. The present work shows that the properties of the material and the chemistry of the system also have to be taken into account to fit the experiments more precisely. Evidence was provided that dissolved oxygen has a marked effect on gel dose. In PEW the reaction is induced in very small solution volumes, so that marked competition seems to take place between reaction and diffusion.