Barrier rib manufactured by the photosensitive paste is the function structure of plasma display panels (PDPs) which is used to maintain the discharge space between two glass plates. As the most promising option for barrier rib preparation, the photosensitive paste contains binder polymer, monomers, photoinitiator, and barrier rib powder etc., all of which influenced the performance of barrier rib. Among all these components, monomers play a very important role in the formation process and resolution of barrier rib during of these components. In this work, double-bond conversion, curing speed, content, volume shrinkage, and the best mixed proportion of monomers were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, density measurements, analog computation and orthogonal test. It was found that the high aspect ratio barrier rib could be produced based on the optimizing additives of components in the photosensitive paste. The height of barrier rib of about 220 mu m could further decline the energy consumption of PDP effectively. (C) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012