Anionic Polymerizable Surfactants and Stabilizers in Emulsion Polymerization: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The feasibility of using commercially available anionic polymerizable surfactants (LatemulPD‐104 and SipomerPam‐200) and anionic polymerizable stabilizer (SipomerCops‐1) in the batch emulsion copolymerization of model acrylic latexes is studied. The effect of both surfactant type and surfactant concentration on the number of polymer particles and molecular weights is investigated. LatemulPD‐104 behaves as the conventional surfactant Dowfax2A1 and the dependence of the number of particles upon surfactant concentration is similar for both surfactants. However, when SipomerPam‐200 is used a higher dependence is observed, probably due to a substantial contribution of homogeneous nucleation. When the stabilizer SipomerCops‐1 is used polymer particles are only formed by homogeneous nucleation. The molecular weights of the final latexes are affected by the surfactant type and concentration used in the polymerization, and unexpectedly, gel is formed when SipomerPam‐200 is used. image