Environmentally friendly polymer latex

Abstract

Research in the area of coatings focuses primarily on the mechanism for the formation of film on different substrates. Because of environmental hazards related to solvent evaporation and its cost, the ambient cured waterborne systems are emerging as one of the better option for achieving superior properties in high performance applications. The properties like adhesion, gloss, hardness, water resistance, and so on may also get affected by incorporating higher acrylate in the formation of copolymers based on methyl methacrylate (MMA). The swelling behavior of any polymer network depends upon the nature of the polymer, polymer solvent compatibility, and degree of cross-linking. The swelling kinetics of emulsion polymerization of monomers MMA/butyl acrylate was studied to investigate the effect of cross-linkable monomer polypropylene glycol diacrylate (PPGDA). The prepared latex was coated on glass panels and cured at appropriate temperature. According to diffusion-controlled mechanism, the diffusion coefficient for these films varied with degree of cross-linking of the films. From the above discussed swelling behavior of different polymer films, it has been observed that PPGDA content improved the water resistivity of films. This may be due to the cross-linking nature of PPGDA molecule, which increased the cross-link density of the films.