Microemulsion polymerization of styrene initiated with gamma ray

Abstract

The styrene microemulsion with high monomer content was stabilized with a specially designed emulsifier with a branch in lipophilic head. In order to keep the microemulsion stable during polymerization, the microemulsion was initiated with gamma ray at room temperature. It was observed that there was an apparent plateau of polymerization rate during polymerization. It was the number of growing polymer particles instead of the total polymer particles being kept constant during the plateau. The polymerization kinetics showed some similarity to that in styrene microemulsion stabilized with SDS and n-pentanol.