Photopolymerization catalyst comprising a metallocene and an active halogen-containing compound

Claim 1

In a process for polymerizing a vinyl monomer in the presence of a photoinitiator by irradiating said monomer with a beam of wave energy, the improvement for enhancing the rate of polymerization of said monomer which comprises using as a major proportion of said photoinitiator, a synergistic photosensitizer comprising an activated halogenated compound selected from the group consisting of a halosulfonyl compound, an Alpha , Beta -halosubstituted naphthalene, an allylic activated halogenated compound, and an Alpha -acyl activated halogenated compound and a metallocene compound and mixtures thereof represented by the formulas: wherein Me is a transition metal as set forth in Groups Ib, IIb, IVb, Vb, VIb, VIIb, and VIIIb having an atomic number of between 22 and 79, excluding 26; R and R'' are olefins having conjugated unsaturation and from four to 10 carbon atoms in the structure and N is a number from one to four to satisfy available valence bonds, said metallocene compound being present in said synergistic photosensitizer in a proportion of from about 0.01 to 50 percent by weight based on the halogenated compound.