Application of the Serum Replacement Technique in the Characterization of an Ethyl Acrylate-Methyl Methacrylate Copolymer Latex

Abstract

The serum replacement technique has been used to “clean” an industrial ethyl aerylate-methyl methacrylate copolymer latex prepared in the presence of acrylic acid monomer. The “cleaning” method allowed the separation of the cleaned latex particles from the serum in a form suitable for further analysis. Both the cleaned latex particles and the serum were analyzed by several methods. Serum replacement recovered about 90% of an anionic surfactant and almost all of the nonionic surfactant used in the preparation of the latex. 17.6% of the initiators used in the preparation of the latex were found to be chemically-bound to the surface of the particles. The acrylic acid monomer found on the surface of the particles and in the aqueous phase amounted to 29.85% and 28.61%, respectively, of the total amount of acrylic acid used in the preparation of the latex. The rest of the acrylic acid was assumed to be buried inside the latex particles.