Camphorquinone (CQ), a widely used photoinitiator (PI) in dental applications, was covalently bonded to aromatic amines to enhance the rate of electron and proton transfer effect due to the close vicinity of the diketone and the amine group. 10-bromocamphorquinone and 10-bromomethylcamphorquinone were selected as suitable precursors for esterification with the carboxyl group containing aromatic amines based on 4-dimethylaminobenzoic acid. Properties of the new photoinitiating systems were investigated by UV spectroscopy and differential scanning photocalorimetry in lauryl acrylate. Compared to physical mixtures, in all cases similar or even better performance was obtained. Surprisingly, 10-acetyl derivatives 7-9 and 18 especially, were found to be highly reactive. Compared to CQ/ethyl 4-dimethylaminobenzoate, the rate of photopolymerization was increased by a factor of up to 2. Intramolecular reaction was confirmed by photo-differential scanning calorimetry experiments with varying PI concentrations. (C) 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.