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Preparation of surfactant-free vinyl polymers by conventional emulsion polymerization using hydrolysable emulsifiers

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Abstract

Emulsion polymerizations of several vinyl monomers, styrene, methyl methacrylate, butyl methacrylate, butyl acrylate, and vinyl acetate, in water using alkali–hydrolysable cationic surfactants with a betaine ester group (1-alkoxycarbonylmethyl)trimethylammonium chlorides, as emulsifiers were carried out and properties of the resulting latices and the polymers recovered by hydrolysis and salting out were investigated. There were little influences of the surfactants and monomers used here on the polymerizations, forming stable and monodisperse latices with a mean diameter of ca. 70 nm and giving a high molecular weight of polymers at high yields. All polymers were precipitated and recovered by adding a small amount of sodium hydroxide into the latex solutions contained little amount of ionic species. Solvent-cast films of the polymers were found to have surfaces as hydrophobic as those for the corresponding pure polymers prepared by bulk polymerization.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 20550168) and a Grant-in-Aid for Global COE Program from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Functional Polymer Science Course, Division of Chemistry and Materials, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, 3-15-1 Tokida, Ueda, Nagano, 386-8567, Japan

    Yoshihiro Itoh, Fumiya Sahara, Kaori Ozaki, Ryo Akasaka & Akira Teramoto

Authors
  1. Yoshihiro Itoh
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  2. Fumiya Sahara
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  3. Kaori Ozaki
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  4. Ryo Akasaka
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  5. Akira Teramoto
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Correspondence to Yoshihiro Itoh.

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Itoh, Y., Sahara, F., Ozaki, K. et al. Preparation of surfactant-free vinyl polymers by conventional emulsion polymerization using hydrolysable emulsifiers. Polym. Bull. 67, 1455–1462 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-011-0462-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00289-011-0462-7

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