Recent advances on coumarin-based photoinitiators of polymerization

During the past decades, a breakthrough has been obtained in the development of photoinitiators activable under low light intensity and in the visible range. In the search for new structures, biosourced or bioinspired molecules have been examined as potential candidates for photoinitiation. In this field, coumarins that can be found in numerous flowers, fruits, vegetables and plant species were determined as highly efficient photoinitiators of polymerization. Especially, these structures were determined as acting as efficiency photoinitiators in Type I and Type II initiating systems. In this review, an overview of the recent development on visible light coumarin-based photoinitiators of polymerization is provided. To evidence the interest of these structures, comparisons with reference photoinitiating systems will be provided.