BETHESDA, MD - RadTech, the non-profit trade association for UV and EB curing technologies, announced the awards for best papers for the upcoming biennial RadTech 2016 Conference, which is taking place May 16-18, 2016 in Chicago.

The Best Student Paper Award is going to Sara Kaalberg of the University of Iowa (co-author: Professor Julie L.P. Jessop) for a paper titled "Combining oxiranes and oxetanes to enhance kinetics and improve physical properties." This paper deals with advances in cationic photopolymerizations, which can result in significant cost savings to users.  For example, the addition of oxetane monomers to epoxide formulations dramatically reduces both formulation viscosity and reaction time, as well as enables control of polymer flexibility. These systems could be advantageous in applications such as automotive and aircraft coatings that have large surface areas or complex geometries, microelectronic encapsulation that would benefit from low-viscosity formulations, or protective coatings on rolled substrates that require immediate green strength while final properties are achieved during storage.

Marika Morone of IGM Resins and co-authors Andrea Bernini Freddia and Gabriele Norcinia are being recognized with the Best Overall Paper Award for a paper titled “Design of New 3-Ketocoumarins for UV LED Curing.” The aim of this work is to develop a new photoinitiator for LED lamps (365 nm and 395nm) able to overcome limitations of existing products, while retaining high reactivity and solubility. Because the major market for LED is graphic arts, the first target is to develop a new product for this field. This new photoinitiator is suitable for printing inks such as offset, flexo, screen and inkjet inks, but also for all applications that require high speed and low oxygen sensitivity.