Kinetics and mechanism of styrene‐acrylonitrile copolymerization in micro‐emulsion

Stable and transparent poly(styrene‐acrylonitrile) latexes were produced by the polymerization of styrene‐acrylonitrile in ternary o/w micro‐emulsions containing sodium dodecyl sulfate as an anionic surfactant. Kinetics of copolymerization was studied at different temperatures using different concentrations of potassium persulfate and hydrogen peroxide/ascorbic acid. The suitability of existing model for homopolymerization was examined for styrene‐acrylonitrile copolymerization after appropriate modification. The latexes were characterized for particle size and number of particles by dynamic light scattering and TEM. The isolated products were characterized by ¹H and ¹³C NMR as well as by thermal analysis. The overall size of particles was found to be between 15 and 20 nm. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry