Synthesis of large, high‐solid‐content latexes by miniemulsion polymerization

Abstract

Multiple and diverse applications have been recently found for miniemulsions and miniemulsion polymerization. In this work, miniemulsion polymerization is presented as a suitable technique for the preparation of high‐solid‐content latices with large particle sizes. Monomer miniemulsions were prepared with a high‐pressure homogenizer, and droplet sizes of 200–700 nm were obtained. Latexes with particle sizes larger than the sizes commonly accepted for miniemulsion polymerization were obtained. With fixed operational conditions of the homogenizer, the type of stabilizer was the key parameter determining the droplet size and the droplet size distribution. The particle size of the latices obtained by miniemulsion polymerization indicated that the particles were mainly formed by droplet nucleation. Latexes obtained by this process have multiple applications, including use as seeds in the polymerization of high‐solid‐content latices. This article shows that potential new applications for miniemulsion polymerization are far from being exhausted. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 4222–4227, 2004

Assessing the effect of latex particle size and distribution on the rheological and adhesive properties of model waterborne acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesives films

“…4. The final PSD reflected the process' main characteristics, where the large-monodisperse-particle-size latex was obtained from a miniemulsion prepared with a nonionic surfactant and a large monomer droplet size [42]. A typical monodisperse small particle size was obtained by the conventional semicontinuous emulsion polymerization process, whereas bimodal and multimodal PSDs were obtained by seeded semicontinuous emulsion polymerization employing two seeds and multiple seeds, respectively.…”

High solid content latex: Preparation methods and application

“…Recently, many research groups have obtained HSC latex, including Greenwood [31,32], Ai [7,8], Chu [42][43][44][45], Schneider [56][57][58], Salima Boutti [53][54][55], Leiza [66], do Amaral [68][69][70], Wei [73] and Zhang et al [76][77][78][79][80][81]. Generally speaking, most HSC latexes were prepared by using the following four methods: conventional emulsion polymerization, miniemulsion polymerization, self-emulsification polymerization, and concentrated emulsion polymerization.…”

“…Miniemulsion polymerization has been used by do Amaral et al [68] to prepared high solid content latex with large particle sizes. Narrow-distributed monomer miniemulsions were prepared with a high-pressure homogenizer, and the final latex can be obtained with large mono-dispersed polymer particles (600-700 nm) by using nonionic surfactant.…”

Novel Experimental Technique for the Determination of Monomer Droplet Size Distribution in Miniemulsion

“…The volume and geometry of the flat-bottom beaker and the position of the tip of the sonicator horn was fixed in the sonication process in order to minimize possible differences due to the homogenization procedure. [9] Wet STEM Imaging System…”