The recently developed silyl radical chemistry is used in combination with transition metal carbonyls MC (dimanganese(0) decacarbonyl; dirhenium decacarbonyl; cyclopentadienyl iron(II) dicarbonyl dimer) for both free radical promoted cationic photopolymerization (FRPCP) and free radical photopolymerization (FRP). The newly developed photoinitiating systems (MC/silane and MC/silane/iodonium salt) are highly efficient under air. Photopolymerization profiles obtained upon a visible light irradiation delivered by a xenon lamp show that high conversion can be easily achieved after a 400 s exposure. Sunlight irradiations under air can also lead to tack free coatings. The processes associated with the metal carbonyl radical/silane interactions are investigated by Laser Flash Photolysis (LFP) and ESR-Spin Trapping (ESR-ST) experiments. (C) 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 1830-1837, 2010