Facile synthesis of one‐to‐one copy of monomer droplet to latex particle via equilibrium stabilized miniemulsion polymerization

Miniemulsion polymerization has been traditionally used to synthesize latex particles with a high homogenization energy to prepare an oil/water miniemulsion followed by further polymerizations. However, the exact copy of monomer droplets to latex particles depends critically on emulsion formulation, homogenization condition as well as the stability of the miniemulsified droplets after homogenization. In this study, we demonstrated experimentally for the first time that one‐to‐one copy of monomer droplets to latex particles can be synthesized via polymerization of a miniemulsion prepared from a less stringent preparation process including formulation without costabilizer and low homogenization energy. The criterion to obtain narrow size distribution of monomer droplets was established by equilibration of a low energy homogenized emulsion for different keeping time and the bulk homogenized emulsion subsequently phase separated into two layers. Top layer is the polydispersed monomer‐rich phase. The bottom layer is the equilibrium‐stabilized monomer droplet emulsion, in which the size distribution of droplets is narrow. The equilibrium‐stabilized emulsion is stable for days and subsequent polymerization exhibits nearly 100% droplet nucleation. Furthermore, the effect of surfactant/costabilizer and initiator on the one‐to‐one feature for the synthesis of latex particles was investigated in details. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2009. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Seeded emulsion polymerization of n-butyl acrylate utilizing miniemulsions

Nucleation of polymer particles in the seeded emulsion polymerization of n-butyl acrylate (BuA) was studied through experiments designed to control the amount of new particles formed. The results show that for the batch and semicontinuous seeded polymerization of BuA, a small amount of new particles was formed in the system in which the monomer was added neat, whereas a singificant amount of new particles was formed when the monomer was added as a miniemulsion. This suggests that new particles formed in the miniemulsion process were from nucleation of the monomer droplets. These experiments also showed that monomer-droplet nucleation decreased with increasing seed concentration in the reactor. For the seeded semicontinuous polymerizations, monomer-droplet nucleation decreases with decreasing BuA miniemulsion feed rate. The results also show that monomerdroplet nucleation takes place whenever miniemulsion droplets exist in the reactor. This study suggests that miniemulsions can be used to control the particle size distribution of a polymer latex system.     

Effect of cationic surfactant on homogenization and polymerization of methyl methacrylate miniemulsion modified by chitosan

Homogenization of monomer droplets and polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) miniemulsion, stabilized by a combination of cationic surfactants including different amounts of n‐hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (HTMA) and chitosan 100, were investigated. With increasing HTMA concentration or decreasing concentration of chitosan 100, the required ultrasonication time for the miniemulsion to reach a critically stabilized state is reduced. After polymerization, for higher HTMA concentrations, droplet nucleation dominates because of higher surface coverage of HTMA on the droplets. However, for lower HTMA concentrations, the size distributions (SDs) of final latex particles are different from those of the droplets. Because surface coverage of HTMA on the droplets is lower in this condition, both droplet nucleation and homogeneous and/or micellar nucleation occur simultaneously in the miniemulsion polymerization. On increasing the concentration of chitosan 100 in the system, the SD of the final latex particles is far different from that of the droplets. This is due to a decrease of the effective surface coverage of chitosan 100 and HTMA on the droplets. Consequently, the opportunity of collision coalescence of the droplets increases, and MMA molecules can diffuse out more easily into the aqueous phase. Droplet nucleation is, therefore, no longer the major source for the latex particles. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry     

Particle nucleation and growth mechanisms in miniemulsion polymerization of styrene

Styrene miniemulsion polymerizations stabilized by sodium lauryl sulfate in combination with a reactive costabilizer, lauryl methacrylate (LMA) or stearyl methacrylate (SMA), were studied. A small amount of extremely hydrophobic dye was incorporated into monomer droplets (10² nm in diameter) to investigate particle nucleation and growth mechanisms. In addition to monomer droplet nucleation, particle nuclei generated in the aqueous phase (homogeneous nucleation) also play an important role in both LMA‐ and SMA‐containing polymerization systems. The way that these two nucleation mechanisms compete with each other is closely related to the water solubility of the costabilizer (LMA > SMA). The fraction of latex particles originating from homogeneous nucleation increases with decreasing hydrophobicity of the costabilizer. Zeta potential data of latex particles and the molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of emulsion polymers provide supporting evidence for the proposed competitive particle nucleation and growth mechanisms. © 2002 Society of Chemical Industry     

One-step fabrication of multihollow polystyrene particles from miniemulsion system with nonionic surfactant

This paper presented a new facile approach to fabricate polystyrene (PS) multihollow particles from miniemulsion polymerization. The surfactant used in this miniemulsion system was OP-10, a nonionic surfactant of nonyl phenyl polyoxyethylene with an average of 10 ethylene oxide units per molecule (hydrophilic-lipophilic balance, HLB = 13.9). Due to the partition characteristic of OP-10 in miniemulsion, W/O/W structured monomer droplets could be formed after ultrasonic dispersion. Under irradiation by γ-ray, styrene polymerized through a droplet nucleation mechanism, which was the feature of miniemulsion polymerization. The formation of multihollow structure was affected by the content of OP-10 (W_OP) and pre-added PS (W_PS). It was found that when W_OP was above 2 wt% and W_PS was in the region of 2-10 wt% based on the monomer, multihollow PS particles could be obtained. The molecular weight of the PS latex particles synthesized was determined to be 10⁵ g/mol by GPC.     

Miniemulsion polymerization of vegetable oil macromonomers

The Thames Research Group developed vegetable oil macromonomer (VOMM) technology to combine the advantages of oil-modified polyesters and waterborne systems, and reduce volatile organic compounds in waterborne coatings. VOMMs offer the advantage of temporary plasticization with the potential for crosslinking after film formation. However, incorporating VOMMs into emulsions is challenging because the highly hydrophobic nature of VOMMs restricts their diffusion through the water phase. Miniemulsion polymerization has been used to incorporate highly hydrophobic monomers in waterborne systems. Diffusion limitations are avoided by polymerizing inside the monomer droplets, and to ensure this, droplet stabilization is required. In our study, a soybean oil-based VOMM was used as a copolymerizable hydrophobe in miniemulsion polymerization. Monomer droplets were stabilized prior to polymerization via catastrophic phase inversion to form stable and small droplets (100 nm). Dynamic light scattering analysis was used to confirm miniemulsion stability. A coagulum-free latex was obtained after polymerization. Surface tension studies and light scattering techniques were used to confirm that monomer droplet nucleation was the dominant mechanism. Gel content studies indicated the formation of a highly branched or crosslinked network upon film application. The miniemulsion technique permitted VOMM incorporation as high as 35 wt% into the polymer backbone.     

Nucleation mechanism and morphology of polystyrene/Fe3O4 latex particles via miniemulsion polymerization using AIBN as initiator

In this study, oil‐based magnetic Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were first synthesized by a coprecipitation method followed by a surface modification using lauric acid. Polystyrene/Fe₃O₄ composite particles were then prepared via miniemulsion polymerization method using styrene as monomer, 2,2′‐azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as initiator, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) as surfactant, hexadecane (HD) or sorbitan monolaurate (Span20®) as costabilizer in the presence of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The effects of Fe₃O₄ content, costabilizer, homogenization energy during ultrasonication, and surfactant concentration on the polymerization kinetics (e.g., conversion), nucleation mechanism, and morphology (e.g., size distributions of droplets and latex) of composite particles were investigated. The results showed that at high homogenization energy, an optimum amount of SDS and hydrophobic costabilizer was needed to obtain composite particles nucleated predominately by droplet nucleation mechanism. The morphology of the composite particles can be well controlled by the homogenization energy and the hydrophobicity of the costabilizer. The magnetic composite particles can be made by locating Fe₃O₄ inside the latex particles or forming a shell layer on their PS core surface depending on the aforementioned polymerization conditions. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2009     

苯乙烯-有机硅烷共聚物作为助稳定剂的细乳液聚合研究

以苯乙烯(St)与甲基丙烯酰氧基丙基三乙氧基硅烷(TEPM)的共聚物P(St-TEPM)为助稳定剂,用于不同亲水性单体的细乳液聚合.考察了P(St-TEPM)助稳定剂在不同亲水性单体(St、甲基丙烯酸甲酯MMA、醋酸乙烯酯VAc)的细乳液聚合过程中对单体转化率、聚合物粒子粒径的影响及成核机理.结果表明,P(St-TEPM)单独作为助稳定剂用于不同单体(St、MMA、VAc)的细乳液聚合,亲油性较好的St和亲水性较好的VAc的聚合转化率分别为90.6%和63.8%,聚合物粒子的最终数目和单体液滴的起始数目(N pf/Nmi )分别为1.06和0.10.通过以上分析认为P(St-TEPM)可以作为细乳液聚合的助稳定剂使用,亲油性单体St聚合机理以单体液滴成核为主体.     

Characterization of Miniemulsion Polymerization by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering

Summary Emulsion polymerization is one of the major techniques for the manufacture of adhesives, coatings, thermoplastics and elastomers. In miniemulsion polymerization, relatively stable oil droplets within a size range of 500 to 5000 ? are prepared by emulsifying a monomer in a medium, generally water, with the aid of a surfactant and a hydrophobic compound. Droplet size and size distribution are by far the most important parameters of miniemulsion because they affect directly both the miniemulsion stability and droplet nucleation. Therefore, the understanding of the mechanism ruling miniemulsion polymerization strongly depends on an accurate determination of the particle size. Small-angle neutron scattering has been used for the polymerization study of the 1,3,5-tris(trifluoropropylmethyl)cyclotrisiloxane (F₃). In particular, the shape and the size of the particles before and after the anionic polymerization were sought. Surprisingly, the sizes obtained are of the order of 250 ? which ranges this system rather into the microemulsion domain and the observed growth in the mean particle size (25%) implies that there is no full preservation of the particles during the polymerization reaction. On the other hand, the contribution to the scattering of a second population of smaller particles (38 ?) with a broad size distribution in the polymerized sample is attributed to secondary products leading to a 80% polymerization reaction yield.     

Superparamagnetic thermoresponsive composite latex via W/O miniemulsion polymerization

In this research, the thermoresponsive composite latex particles were prepared via W/O miniemulsion polymerization. Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were homogeneously dispersed inside the poly(NIPAAm‐co‐MAA) latex particles. In the first step, PAA oligomers were used as stabilizers to produce a stable water‐based Fe₃O₄ ferrofluid, which could mix well with the water‐soluble monomers. In the second step, the Fe₃O₄/poly(NIPAAm‐co‐MAA) composite latex particles were synthesized via W/O miniemulsion polymerization. This polymerization proceeded in cyclohexane at room temperature, with Span80 as the emulsifier, NIPAAm as the thermoresponsive monomer, MAA as a comonomer with ? COOH functional groups, and APS/SMBS as the redox initiator system. The distribution of Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles inside the composite latex particles was expected to be homogeneous. The nucleation and morphology of the composite latex particles were mainly controlled by the concentration of the surfactant, Span80, in cyclohexane. The properties of the composite latex were examined with several instruments such as DSC and TGA. Finally, the superparamagnetic and thermoresponsive characteristics of this functional composite latex were also investigated. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 100: 3987–3996, 2006     

The influence of monomer types on the colloidal stability in the miniemulsion copolymerization involving alkoxysilane monomer

Unlike conventional emulsion polymerization, monomer droplet nucleation becomes dominant in miniemulsion polymerization, offering the miniemulsion polymerization a great advantage over conventional emulsion polymerization when incorporating alkoxysilane monomer, which can easily undergo premature hydrolysis and condensation reactions, into polymer latex. The extensive premature hydrolysis and condensation can lead to the issue of the colloidal instability. In this article, the influence of monomer types on the colloidal stability in the miniemulsion co-(or ter-)polymerization was investigated when incorporating alkoxysilane monomer into styrene or acrylate latex. In the cases of butyl acrylate (BA)/γ-methacryoxypropytrimethoxysilane (MPMS), BA/methyl methyacrlate (MMA)/MPMS, and BA/styrene (St)/MPMS miniemulsion polymerization, nearly no coagulum was observed. The obtained latex had a long shelf life. However, the coagulum was formed in the late stage of MMA/MPMS and St/MPMS miniemulsion copolymerization. The shelf life of the corresponding latex was short. The selection of the main monomer, which can fast consume alkoxysilane comonomer, was critical to obtain the stable latex. In this way, the alkoxysilane groups were completely buried in particles thus the coagulation caused by condensation reactions derived from the alkoxysilane hydrolysis among particles was suppressed.     

Direct miniemulsification of Kraton rubber/styrene solution. I. Effect of Manton–Gaulin homogenizer,sonifier, and membrane filtration

A direct miniemulsification process was utilized to prepare an artificial latex from a Kraton® D1102 thermoplastic elastomer. The Kraton rubber was dissolved in a styrene monomer and emulsified in an aqueous surfactant solution in the presence of a costabilizer using a sonifier, a Manton–Gaulin homogenizer, and membrane filtration. Each miniemulsion droplet contained 20 wt % Kraton rubber in styrene, and, thus, the Kraton rubber particle size and size distribution can be used to estimate the droplet size and size distribution of the miniemulsion. It was found that Kraton rubber particles obtained using the Manton–Gaulin homogenizer had an extremely broad size distribution ranging from 20 nm to 2 μm. The use of a cetyl alcohol costabilizer produced Kraton rubber particles with a narrower size distribution by lowering the interfacial tension between the oil and aqueous phases, compared to the use of hexadecane as a costabilizer. The broad size distribution of the Kraton rubber particles could be narrowed by employing a membrane‐filtration technique. However, small miniemulsion droplets remained undisturbed in the miniemulsion since they easily passed through the pores of the filter. These small droplets resulted from the sonification process conducted prior to the use of the membrane‐filtration process. The Kraton rubber particle‐size distribution became narrow with an increase in the sonifier duty cycle due to the viscoelastic behavior of the oil phase. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 451–464, 2003     

Miniemulsions for the Production of Nanostructured Particles

Nanostructured particles made from polystyrene and zinc oxide are synthesized by precipitation in miniemulsions and miniemulsion polymerization. There are two main applications for miniemulsions: the formation of sub‐micron or nano‐sized reactors for the precipitation of inorganic nanoparticles and the use of sub‐micron or nano‐sized droplets as templates for nanostructured particles. The latter includes the formation of the desired structures within a monomer droplet, which then is polymerized without changing its size or structure during the process. In this research article two approaches to combine both processes are presented: The zinc oxide nanoparticles are precipitated in an inverse miniemulsion of water droplets in a continuous monomer phase. The resulting miniemulsion is either distilled and the nanoparticles are forced into the monomer phase or the miniemulsion is used directly without distillation. In both cases the particle loaded monomer droplets are afterwards polymerized to hybrid nanoparticles. The focus is on the technological challenges in producing nano‐sized, hybrid particles, especially in regard to continuous processing.     

High pressure semibatch emulsion and miniemulsion copolymerization of vinyl acetate and ethylene

This study presents the experimental study of semibatch emulsion and miniemulsion copolymerization of vinyl acetate (VAc) and ethylene to vinyl acetate-ethylene (VAE) copolymer at 60°C and 80–300 psig. In the miniemulsion copolymerization, a water-soluble initiator (K₂S₂O₈) is used and VAc miniemulsion is prepared in presence of surfactant and cosurfactant using a sonicator or a high-shear homogenizer. Then, ethylene gas is supplied to the reactor at constant partial pressure. In a miniemulsion process, the mass transfer limitations of VAc from monomer droplets to the aqueous phase, and to micelles or polymer latex particles that are present in conventional macro-emulsion polymerization can be eliminated and the transfer of ethylene dissolved in the aqueous phase to the miniemulsion droplets is the major ethylene transport process for the polymerization. The experimental data show that the amount of ethylene incorporation into the copolymer is higher in miniemulsion polymerization than in emulsion polymerization. The ethylene pressure has been found to have a strong impact on the ethylene incorporation into the copolymer phase in both emulsion and miniemulsion copolymerizations but the increase is more pronounced in miniemulsion case. The VAE copolymer latex particles prepared by miniemulsion polymerization exhibited higher storage stability than those prepared by macro-emulsion polymerization.     

Monte Carlo Simulation of Droplet Nucleation in RAFT Free Radical Miniemulsion Polymerization

Abstract

The early stages of the reversible addition/fragmentation transfer (RAFT) miniemulsion polymerization were simulated, focusing on the effect of the RAFT agent on droplet nucleation. For highly reactive RAFT agents, a large number of free radicals (N_c ) needed to be captured by a droplet in order to initiate polymerization in the droplet, which was totally different from the behavior of regular miniemulsion polymerization. More interestingly, it was found that droplet size had a significant influence on N_c value. It was shown that the RAFT agent has a significant influence on miniemulsion polymerization, leading to long induction periods and retardation of polymerization. In addition, miniemulsion droplets with different sizes are nucleated at different times, which could lead to very low nucleation efficiency. The results would be very helpful in understanding and designing a RAFT miniemulsion polymerization system.     

Miniemulsion copolymerization of styrene and butyl acrylate initiated by redox system at lower temperature: Reaction kinetics and evolution of particle‐size distribution

The kinetics of the miniemulsion copolymerization of styrene (St) and butyl acrylate (BA) initiated by redox initiators, (NH₄)₂S₂O₈/NaHSO₃, at lower temperature (45°C) was studied. The polymerization rate in miniemulsion copolymerization is lower than that of the corresponding conventional emulsion copolymerization. In regard to the rate of polymerization, the initiator concentration plays a more important role in miniemulsion copolymerization than in conventional emulsion polymerization, while the surfactant concentration has a more important role in conventional emulsion polymerization than in miniemulsion polymerization. These are attributed to their different nucleation mechanisms, which are the same as those found in the miniemulsion polymerization carried out at higher temperatures. While by eliminating nucleation via micelle and ensuring against homogeneous nucleation, miniemulsion polymerization can be carried out by the sole nucleation mechanism—monomer droplet nucleation—at lower temperature. Because of this, the particles become narrower during the polymerization and, finally, monodisperse polymer particles are obtained. The result of the particle numbers indicated that a continuous nucleation will cease at about 60% conversion. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 73: 315–322, 1999     

Miniemulsion polymerization of styrene with polymeric costabilizers

The polymeric costabilizers poly(stearyl methacrylate‐co‐2‐hydroxyethylmethacrylate) (PSH) and poly(lauryl methacrylate‐co‐2‐hydroxyethylmethacrylate) (PLH), composed of a hydrophilic backbone and several hydrophobic alkyl (stearyl or lauryl) side chains, were prepared by the free‐radical copolymerization of stearyl methacrylate (SMA) or lauryl methacrylate (LMA) with 2‐hydroxyethylmethacrylate and evaluated in the miniemulsion polymerization of styrene (ST). For comparison, the reactive costabilizers SMA and LMA were also included in this work. The hydrophobicity of costabilizers in increasing order was PLH < PSH < LMA < SMA. Only a small amount of these comb‐like copolymers was capable of producing kinetically stable ST emulsion droplets. The more hydrophobic the costabilizer was, the more effective was the costabilizer in the retardation of Ostwald ripening. About 30–40% of the monomer droplets were successfully converted into latex particles during the polymerization. The degree of monomer droplet nucleation increased with increasing hydrophobicity of the costabilizer. The formation of particle nuclei in the continuous aqueous phase played a crucial role in the polymerization kinetics. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 1961–1969, 2004     

Batch polymerization of methyl methacrylate in mini/macroemulsions

The kinetics of the isothermal batch macroemulsion and miniemulsion polymerizations of methyl methacrylate (MMA) at 50°C have been studied. Hexadecane was used as the cosurfactant or swelling agent. The nucleation mechanisms were observed to be different between macroemulsions and miniemulsions. The effect of surfactant, cosurfactant, initiator, shear, and hold time on droplet nucleation was studied. The miniemulsion particles were found to contain more radicals on average than the macroemulsion particles using certain recipes. This resulted in higher polymerization rates for the miniemulsions at identical particle numbers. The latex-particle-size distributions were similar even though the mini-emulsion droplets start out with a high polydispersity of around 1.5. Miniemulsion latexes were found to be more stable under shear. Conductance of emulsions during polymerization was found to be a valuable on-line tool for investigating particle nucleation and growth. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

含纳米二氧化硅粒子的丙烯酯丁酯细乳化

为了调控含纳米SiO₂的丙烯酸丁酯细乳化后液滴的粒径及粒径分布,研究了细乳化体系组成和超声分散条件对细乳化液滴粒径及粒径分布的影响.发现存在使细乳化液滴粒径及粒径分布趋于稳定的临界超声功率和超声时间;随着十二烷基硫酸钠（SDS）乳化剂浓度增加,液滴粒径减小,而十六烷浓度对液滴粒径影响较小;随着BA分散液中纳米SiO₂质量分数和BA分散液/水质量比的增加,液滴平均粒径增大,粒径分布变宽,这是由于纳米SiO₂粒子吸收了部分超声波能量,同时改变了分散相特性所致.当放置或聚合温度在65℃以下时,细乳化液或相应的聚丙烯酸丁酯/纳米SiO₂复合乳胶能稳定分散.     

微滴乳液聚合制备PDMS/SiO2纳米复合材料

采用超声分散的方法,以少量八甲基环四硅氧烷(D₄)对硅溶胶粒子进行表面接枝改性。然后在改性硅溶胶存在下,以十二烷基苯磺酸(DBSA)为乳化剂兼催化剂进行D₄的微滴乳液聚合,得到聚硅氧烷(PDMS)/二氧化硅(SiO₂)纳米复合乳液。采用FTIR、TGA、纳米粒度仪、TEM和拉力机分别对样品进行了表征。结果表明:采用超声分散的方法,能够有效地实现硅溶胶粒子的表面改性。通过微滴乳液聚合得到的复合乳胶粒是聚合物包覆二氧化硅粒子的核壳结构形态。SiO₂的引入提高了有机硅复合膜力学性能,增强了热稳定性。