Soap‐free emulsion copolymerization of perfluoroalkyl acrylates in the presence of a reactive surfactant

Abstract

Soap-free emulsion copolymerization of perfluoroalkyl acrylate (FA)/methyl methacrylate (MMA)/ n-butyl acrylate (n-BA) was carried out in the presence of sodium 2-acrylamide-2-methyl propanesulfonate (AMPSNa) as a reactive surfactant and potassium persulfate (KPS) as an initiator. An analysis of the effects of concentration of AMPSNa, KPS, FA as well as polymerization temperature on the kinetic features (rate of polymerization) and colloidal characteristics (mean particle diameter, particle disperse index, particle numbers, and surface charge density) was followed. NMR, FTIR, AFM, and fluorine-selective electrode analysis were used to characterize the composition and morphology of the FA copolymers. Both AFM analysis and contact angle measurements strongly implied that the fluorinated segments migrated to the outmost surface and created films with lower surface energy.

Synthesis of Poly(methyl methacrylate-co-butyl acrylate)/Perfluorosilyl Methacrylate Core-Shell Nanoparticles: Novel Approach for Optimization of Coating Process

“…It is thus imperative to develop new methods for preparing fluorinated acrylate copolymer emulsions and introduce new functional monomers to improve the properties of the emulsion and its latex film. To address the issue above-mentioned, an increasing number of studies have been conducted on the soap-free emulsion polymerization method [17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26] using reactive emulsifiers as the reactive emulsifier can react with monomers and become part of the polymers, decreasing the negative effects of general emulsifiers on the nature of the latex film. In addition, self-crosslinking functional monomers, which can copolymerize with other vinyl monomers to form fluorinated acrylate copolymer latexes, but also form a reticular polymer matrix during the film-forming process to restrict the fluoroalkyl groups from migrating inside, have gradually attracted increasing interest.…”

Synthesis of Poly (Methyl Methacrylate-Co-Butyl Acrylate)/Perfluorosilyl Methacrylate Core–Shell Nanoparticles: Novel Approach for Optimization of Coating Process

“…It is thus imperative to develop new methods for preparing fluorinated acrylate copolymer emulsion and introduce new functional monomers to improve the properties of the emulsion and its latex film. To address the issue mentioned above, an increasing number of studies have been conducted on the soap-free emulsion polymerization method [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] using reactive emulsifiers, because the reactive emulsifier can react with monomers and become part of the polymers, decreasing the negative effects of general emulsifiers on the nature of the latex film. In addition, self-crosslinking functional monomers, which can copolymerize with other vinyl monomers to form fluorinated acrylate copolymer latexes, but also form a reticular polymer matrix during the film-forming process to restrict the fluoroalkyl groups from migrating inside, have attracted gradually increasing interest.…”

Three different β‐cyclodextrins direct the emulsion copolymerization of a highly fluorinated methacrylate toward distinctive nanostructured particle morphologies

“…Conventional multistage semicontinuous emulsion polymerization usually yields poorly defined heterophase particle morphologies9–11 or requires cationic surfactants that are incompatible with several applications 12. More complex methods require fluorinated surfactants,13 organic solvents,14 water soluble or surface‐active comonomers,15–17 high shear processing equipment (as in miniemulsion polymerization),18–20 or large amounts of surfactant (as in microemulsions) 21. In all the above approaches, the properties of the latex films appear to be not optimized.…”