Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun.
1995, 60, 1756-1764
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc19951756
Effect of Initial Polymerization Conditions on the Structure of Ethyl Acrylate-Methacrylic Acid Copolymer Latex Particles
Jaromír Šňupáreka, Pavel Bradnab, Libuše Mrkvičkováb, František Lednickýb and Otakar Quadratb
a Department of Polymers, University of Pardubice, 532 10 Pardubice, Czech Republic
b Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 162 06 Prague 6, Czech Republic
Abstract
Non-seeded semi-continuous emulsion copolymerizations of ethyl acrylate-methacrylic acid (85/15 wt. ratio) were carried out using various emulsifier and initiator concentrations and phase partitioning. The effect of the polymerization conditions on the particle size and morphology was investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy, light scattering and viscometry. Disintegration into smaller particles on alkali addition confirmed coagulative mechanism of the particle growth. This is distinct mainly if the colloidal stability of the polymerizing system is reduced due to lower concentration of the emulsifier and higher concentration of peroxydisulfate initiator which suppress double layer thickness of forming particles.
