Incorporation of nonionic emulsifier inside methacrylic polymer particles in emulsion polymerization

Abstract

The incorporations of polyoxyethylene lauryl ether (Emulgen 109P) and polyoxyethylene nonyl phenyl ether (Emulgen 911) nonionic emulsifiers inside poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA) and poly(iso-butyl methacrylate) (Pi-BMA) particles, prepared by emulsifier-present emulsion polymerizations were examined. In order to measure the amounts of the incorporated nonionic emulsifiers, optimum compositions of 2-propanol aqueous solutions to remove the nonionic emulsifier from the particle surfaces without removal from the insides were determined. The amount of the incorporation measured by gel permeation chromatography was increased in order of PMMA >PEMA > Pi-BMA, which accorded with the order of miscibility between each polymer and the emulsifier.

Effects of stirring prior to starting emulsion polymerization of styrene with nonionic emulsifier on particle formation and its incorporation

“…When monomer droplets (layer) disappeared in the middle of emulsion polymerization, the emulsifiers that existed therein were instantly released to the aqueous phase, resulting in higher concentration in aqueous phase than critical micelle concentration (cmc) [2][3][4][5]. Surprisingly, we found that a significant amount of nonionic emulsifier released from monomer droplets entered into polymerizing particles swollen with monomer via the aqueous phase and it remained therein until the end of polymerization [8][9][10][11][12][13] as described below.…”

“…Such an incorporation phenomenon of nonionic emulsifier inside particles was also observed in the emulsion polymerizations of styrene using two kinds of nonionic emulsifiers having different HLB values, which are Emulgen 109P (E109P) [C 12 [8], and in the emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate, ethyl methacrylate, or isobutyl methacrylate using E109P or E911 [9], although the percentage of the incorporation depended on the kinds of nonionic emulsifier and monomers.…”

Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization of iso‐Butyl Methacrylate in Microemulsion with Cationic and Non‐Ionic Emulsifiers

“…[46] It has been shown experimentally that some fraction of E911 is incorporated into the polymer particles during emulsion polymerization. [47][48][49] In the present system, phase transfer equilibrium of E911 is expected to be reached rapidly because of the very large total interfacial area in the system. It is speculated that E911 may undergo complex formation with CuBr 2 in the particle phase, and as such to some extent prevent CuBr 2 from exiting to the aqueous phase (because CuBr 2 complexed with E911 would partition much less to the aqueous phase than CuBr 2 ).…”

One-step fabrication of multihollow polystyrene particles from miniemulsion system with nonionic surfactant

“…The short of attention on miniemulsion using nonionic surfactants may be related to their special properties. In conventional emulsion polymerization with nonionic surfactants, experimental results tend to show that the nonionic surfactants are readily partitioned into the inner side of the monomer phase because of their high oil solubility [8,9], while ionic surfactants prefer to stay at the interface of oil and aqueous phases. For example, Ö zdeger et al [10][11][12] investigated emulsion polymerization using nonionic polyoxyethylene octyl phenyl ether with an average of 40 ethylene oxides (EO) per molecule (Triton X-405, HLB ¼ 17.6).…”