Abstract
In this work, alkali soluble resin (ASR) was evaluated as a surfactant in emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA), styrene (SM), and butylacrylate (BA). A decrease in reaction rate was observed with ASR as the surfactant in the MMA system but not in the SM system. Kinetic analysis indicated that ASR retards the reaction rate and reduces the average number of radicals per latex particle in the MMA system. Experimental results also showed that the reaction rate of BA was slow and that the BA latex was unstable with ASR as the surfactant. A grafting reaction was observed in the presence of ASR via gel permeation chromatography (GPC) measurements. The transmission electron micrograph was employed to observe the morphology of latex as well. It depicted that the particles were surrounded by ASR to stabilize the latex particle. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.