The purpose of our study was to design a new class of acrylate-based monomers with an LTV-cleavable heteroatom bond, offering the possibility to initiate radical polymerization upon irradiation with LTV-light. A method to derive the double bond conversion from the ATR-IR spectra of the monomers and the cured polymers was employed, that enabled us to calculate the theoretical polymerization heats of the new monomers. Their photopolymerization properties were determined by Photo Differential Scanning Calorimetry. Surprisingly, some of these new compounds exhibited high photoinitiation activity, comparable to well-established Type II photoinitiator systems like benzophenone/triethanolamine. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 392-403, 2009