High PVC film‐forming composite latex particles via miniemulsification,part 1: Preparation

Miniemulsification technology was used to encapsulate TiO₂ particles inside a styrene/n‐butyl acrylate copolymer with high loading levels (11 to 70% PVC (pigment volume concentration)). In this approach, a St/BA copolymer dissolved in toluene in the presence of a costabilizer (hexadecane) was mixed with a dispersion of TiO₂ particles in toluene and sonified, and then emulsified in an aqueous surfactant solution by sonification. The effect of sonification time on both the dispersibility of the TiO₂ particles in the presence of the copolymer and hexadecane and on the encapsulated particle size was investigated. Particle size analysis by dynamic light scattering showed that these composite latexes are quite stable. It was also found that as the TiO₂ loading increased from 11 to 43% PVC, the particle size of the TiO₂ dispersion decreased while the polymer‐encapsulated TiO₂ particle size increased. The effect of surfactant concentration (sodium lauryl sulfate, SLS) on the encapsulated particle size was investigated using four different SLS concentrations in the 11% PVC system. The results showed that as the SLS concentration increased the particle size decreased, as expected. Also it was found that the minimum surfactant concentration that gives stable encapsulated TiO₂ particles is above 10 mM SLS. The role of HD in the recipe was studied for an artificial latex containing no TiO₂ and one prepared at 11% PVC, in terms of particle size before and after solvent stripping, and its effect on the T_g. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 4504–4516, 2006     

Amphoteric water‐soluble copolymer for barium titanate slurries. I. Synthesis and dispersing ability

An amphoteric water‐soluble copolymer, polyacrylamide/[α‐N,N‐dimethyl‐N‐(3‐(β‐carboxylate)acrylamino)propyl] ammonium ethanate (PAM/DAE) was synthesized and used as a dispersion agent for BaTiO₃ particles. PAM/DAE was prepared from acrylamide and [α‐N,N‐dimethyl‐N‐(3‐(β‐carboxylate)acrylamino)propyl] ammonium ethanate in a basic condition through a free‐radical polymerization. The structure of this copolymer was verified by IR and ¹H‐NMR spectra. The dispersing effects of PAM/DAE were examined by measuring the viscosity and sedimentation of BaTiO₃ suspensions, and by analyzing the particle size. The results indicate that this copolymer could uniformly disperse the particles, and the resulting suspensions were less viscous, more stabilized, and contained powder with smaller particle size. The dispersing/stabilizing ability of PAM/DAE is close to, or slightly better than, that of a commercial dispersant, ammonium salt of poly(methacrylic acid). © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 96: 1443–1450, 2005     

Statistical properties of interparticle/void distance for amorphous plastics toughening

Statistical properties of interparticle/void distance (ID) for various particle/void and dispersion types are studied in relation with toughening of plastics using computer‐generated three‐dimensional models. Particle/void size groups adopted were either of constant diameter or of log‐normal distribution. Particles/voids were dispersed at uniform‐random or flocculated with multiple clusters. It was found that IDs are (a) of approximately Gaussian distribution for particles/voids of either a constant diameter or a log‐normal distribution, when they are dispersed at uniform‐random, but (b) not of Gaussian distribution for particle/void sizes of bimodal log‐normal distribution, nor for flocculated log‐normal distribution of particles/voids dispersed with multiple clusters. It was also found that the degree of ID uniformity for a single group of log‐normally sized particles/voids is not sensitive to standard deviation of particle/void size. Mixing effect on ID properties using two groups of log‐normally distributed particles/voids with similar mean particle/void diameters was simulated. It was found that, when a significant amount (36 vol %) of particles/voids of a small mean and standard deviation of ID was mixed with a group of particles/voids of a large mean and standard deviation of ID, mean and standard deviation of ID for the mixture were not substantially lower than those of the group of particles/voids of the large mean and standard deviation of ID. It was also found that the degree of ID uniformity for the mixture of the two groups was lower than those of individual groups, indicating that the mixing has deleterious effect on toughening. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 101: 4256–4262, 2006     

Sharkskin mechanism of high‐impact polystyrene (HIPS) and rheological behavior of HIPS/TiO2 composites

The rheological behaviors of high‐impact polystyrene (HIPS) and HIPS/TiO₂ composites were investigated by use of a rheometer in the present article. HIPS exhibited a constant critical stress of the sharkskin in various temperatures, and the analysis indicated that the mechanism of sharkskin of HIPS was wall–slip and its special temperature dependency was determined by weak wall–melt adsorption. The experimental results also showed that the introduction of TiO₂ into HIPS only slightly influenced the apparent viscosity (η_a) of the composites. Moreover, TiO₂ exhibited an unusual effect on the non‐Newtonian index of the composites at high shear rate. Both phenomena indicated the increase of inner free volume induced by TiO₂ in molecularly rigid HIPS. Moreover, it was noteworthy that a featured stress could be used to label the dispersion of TiO₂ in the HIPS matrix, and the numeric affinity of this featured stress and the critical stress of sharkskin revealed that both processes were relevant to the same molecular relaxation. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 96: 802–807, 2005     

Effect of different carbon fillers on the properties of PP composites: Comparison of carbon black with multiwalled carbon nanotubes

Polypropylene (PP)/carbon composites were prepared via melt blending PP with carbon fillers, including multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and carbon black (CB). Field‐emission scanning electron microscopy was used to research the morphology and dispersion of fillers in the PP matrix. The electrical properties, mechanical properties, and crystallization behaviors of PP/carbon composites were also investigated. The results show that the influence of MWNTs on the properties of PP composites is different with CB, which can be ascribed to the structure and aspect ratio difference between MWNTs and CB. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102:4823–4830, 2006     

Polyurethane–poly(methyl methacrylate) block copolymer dispersions through polyurethane macroiniferters

Polyurethane macroiniferter/poly(methyl methacrylate) block copolymer dispersions with inverse core‐shell morphologies were obtained from 1,1,2,2,‐tetraphenylethane‐1,2‐diol, dimethylol propionic acid, 4,4′‐diphenylmethane diisocyanate, and poly(propylene glycol) via a living radical mechanism. Molecular weight, particle size and dispersion viscosity, and thermal, mechanical, and dynamic mechanical properties of the dispersion cast films are reported as a function of copolymerization time. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 88: 1971–1975, 2003     

Monodisperse nanoparticles of poly(ethylene glycol) macromers and N‐isopropyl acrylamide for biomedical applications

Poly(ethylene glycol)‐based nanoparticles have received significant attention in the field of biomedicine. When they are copolymerized with pH‐ or temperature‐sensitive comonomers, their small size allows them to respond very quickly to changes in the environment, including changes in the pH, ionic strength, and temperature. In addition, the high surface‐to‐volume ratio makes them highly functionalized. In this work, nanoparticles composed of temperature‐sensitive poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide), poly(ethylene glycol) 400 dimethacrylate, and poly(ethylene glycol) 1000 methacrylate were prepared by a thermally initiated, free‐radical dispersion polymerization method. The temperature‐responsive behavior of the hydrogel nanoparticles was characterized by the study of their particle size with photon correlation spectroscopy. The size of the nanoparticles varied from 200 to 1100 nm and was a strong function of the temperature of the system, from 5 to 40°C. The thermal, structural, and morphological characteristics were also investigated. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87: 1678–1684, 2003     

Influence of mixing cycle on the degree of mixing of calcite‐filled polyethylene upon stretching

The mixing cycle‐dependent degree of dispersion and degree of mixing of a calcite (calcium carbonate) agglomerate in high‐density polyethylene (HDPE), low‐density polyethylene (LDPE), and linear low‐density polyethylene (LLDPE) matrices upon stretching was investigated using three different techniques: mechanical property, morphological behavior, and image analyzer analyses. The mechanical properties analyzed in terms of the tensile strength and maximum elongation resulted in that the second mixing was the best for giving a better property for all systems except the LDPE system, which exhibited no significant difference between the second and third mixings. The morphological behavior of the three compounds were different, but no distinctive difference was observed to differentiate the degree of mixing from system to system. The number‐, weight‐, and z + 1‐average diameters of the air hole and the aspect ratio upon the stretching and mixing cycle were calculated to analyze the degree of mixing of the calcite‐filled composites. As a consequence, no difference in the average diameter of the air hole was obtained among the three systems, but the aspect ratios of the air hole varied significantly. Thus, the degree of dispersion and the degree of mixing may be influenced by the average calcite agglomerate size, the average diameter of the air hole, and the aspect ratio upon stretching and mixing cycles. Those factors would be formed by the difference in chemical characteristics upon various microstructures of polyethylene and its molecular weight and molecular weight distribution. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 87: 311–321, 2003     

Factors influencing magnetic polymer microspheres prepared by dispersion polymerization

Magnetic iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) was prepared by a coprecipitation method. Core–shell composite magnetic polymer microspheres with carboxyl groups were synthesized by the dispersion polymerization of styrene and acrylic acid in the presence of magnetic oxide, and dibenzoyl peroxide was used as an initiator. The synthesized magnetic polymer microspheres were characterized with X‐ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and so forth. The results indicated that the product was single‐phase Fe₃O₄, and its average size was about 10 nm. The configuration of the microspheres, which contained carboxyl groups, was spherical, and the average size was about 2 μm. The results of vibrating sample magnetometry tests showed that the magnetic powders produced by different surfactants had different saturation magnetizations. When poly(ethylene glycol) with a weight‐average molecular weight of 4000 was used as a surfactant, the saturation magnetization of the samples reached 69.2 emu/g. The factors that affected the shape, magnetism, size, and distribution of the microspheres were also studied. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2007     

Dispersion-Enabled Symmetry Switching of Photonic Angular-Momentum Coupling

Photonic spin-orbit interactions describe the interactions between spin angular momentum and orbital angular momentum of photons, which play essential roles in subwavelength optics. However, the influence of frequency dispersion on photonic angular-momentum coupling is rarely studied. Here, by elaborately designing the contribution of the geometric phase and waveguide propagation phase, the dispersion-enabled symmetry switching of photonic angular-momentum coupling is experimentally demonstrated. This notion may induce many exotic phenomena and be found in enormous applications, such as the spin-Hall effect, optical calculation, and wavelength division multiplexing systems. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, two metadevices, a multi-channel vectorial vortex beam generator and a phase-only hologram, are applied to experimentally display optical double convolution, which may offer additional degrees of freedom to accelerate computing and a miniaturization configuration for optical convolution without collimation operation. These results may provide a new opportunity for complex vector optical field manipulation and calculation, optical information coding, light-matter interaction manipulation, and optical communication.