Using anionic polymerizable surfactants in ultrasonically irradiated emulsion polymerization to prepare polymer nanoparticles

An ionic polymerizable surfactant, sodium sulfopropyl‐laurylmaleate (M12), was synthesized and used as an emulsifier, an initiator, and a comonomer in ultrasonically irradiated emulsion polymerization. FTIR spectra and gravimetric method results indicated that copolymers P(Styrene‐M12) and P(Butylacrlate‐M12) were prepared successfully by ultrasonically irradiated emulsion polymerization and the composition of M12 elevated with the increasing concentration of M12 added. TEM photographs of P(St‐M12) showed that the nanoparticles with small diameters (20–45 nm) were prepared. With the increase of M12 concentration, the particle size became smaller and the size distribution became wider. The P(BA‐M12) particles size was also small (<100 nm) but the size distribution was wide due to the high reactivity of BA. Because surfmer M12 was chemically bonded with the latex particles, the stability of the copolymer latex prepared by ultrasonically irradiated emulsion polymerization was much better than that of the homopolymer latex (PSt or PBA) prepared by the same way. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008