A study on the synthesis of acrylic composite particles and investigation of their characterization

Core-shell latexes were synthesized by sequential emulsion polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA), styrene (St), and ethyl acrylate (EA) in the presence of anionic surfactant, and the characteristics of these latexes were evaluated. The core latex had to be synthesized carefully to avoid the formation of secondary particles. The sequential polymerization method adopted for this synthesis took advantage of stabilizing particles grown during shell polymerization. In core-shell latex polymerization, to suppress the generation of new particles and to minimize the gelation during the shell polymerization, the amount of surfactant (Sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate: SDBS) should be reduced to the minimum, 0.01 wt% and 0.02 wt% of SDBS to amount of monomer, respectively, when the Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and Polystyrene (PSt) core latexes are prepared. In addition, the monomer pre-emulsion method is better than monomer-add method. The core-shell structure for composite latex synthesized was demonstrated by Particle Size Analysis (PSA), Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), formability of film, and hydrolysis under NaOH solution.