Butyl acrylate and vinyl acetate semicontinuous emulsion copolymerizations: study of stabilization performance

Abstract

AbstractThe use of small amounts of carboxylic monomers in industrial recipes with high solids content enhances colloidal stability due to the presence of carboxylic groups on the outer surface of the polymer particles. Understanding the relationship between several different but interdependent phenomena, including particle nucleation, kinetics, particle aggregation, monomer type, solids content, the role of the carboxylic monomer and the influence of reaction temperature may improve the control over particle size and latex stability. In this work, the kinetics and stabilization performance of semicontinuous vinyl acetate (VA) and butyl acrylate (BA) emulsion copolymerization reactions are studied under different reaction temperatures, acrylic acid (AA) concentrations, solids contents and monomer feed compositions. Results show that choosing optimal AA concentrations and reaction temperatures are key factors in order to enhance the stabilization performance in semicontinuous VA/BA emulsion copolymerization.