Reactive surfactants for commercial polymer dispersions

Abstract

Surfactants play a dual role in emulsion polymerization. Dispersions of film-forming polymers are being used commercially as binders in a range of different coating applications. One of the drawbacks of the surfactants conventionally used in emulsion polymerization is the fact that they introduce hydrophilic entities that detract from the barrier properties of the final polymer film. Surfactants have been proven to migrate from the film to the film-air or film-substrate interface, often with failure of the coating as a result. When a higher level of performance is demanded it is advantageous to reduce the level or eliminate altogether conventional surfactants. In this paper new developments in the field of acrylic copolymer dispersions for waterborne coating systems prepared with polymerizable surfactants (“surfmers”) are discussed.

Acknowledgements. Part of this work was carried out under the Brite-Euram program (contract no. BRPR-CT97–0525). DMTA measurements were performed by Emmanuele Chabert from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Lyon, France. The AFM measurements were carried out by Anne-Charlotte Hellgren at Ytkemiska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. I would also like to thank Anneke van der Zande for carrying out the emulsion polymerizations.

Paper presented at Polymer Colloids: preparation & properties of aqueous polymer dispersions, July 14–19, 2002, Irsee, Germany