Hyperbranched ionic surfactants with polyether skeleton: Synthesis, properties and used as stabilizer for emulsion polymerization.

[Display omitted] • A versatile strategy for synthesis of hyperbranched ionic surfactants was provided. • A series of hyperbranched surfactants composed by polyether skeleton and various ionic side groups were synthesized. • Hyperbranched ionic surfactants obtained in this work exhibit low Krafft temperatures. • Latex prepared using hyperbranched anionic surfactant as a stabilizer exhibit improved tolerance to salinity. A versatile strategy involves anionic ring-opening polymerization (AROP) and thiol-ene reaction was contributed for the construction of hyperbranched ionic surfactants. A series of hyperbranched surfactants composed of polyether skeleton and various ionic side groups such as anion, cation and zwitterion were synthesized and labeled as HPE anionic , HPE cationic and HPE zwitterionic , respectively. The chemical structures of all the intermediate and final products were verified by means of fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The surface and interfacial tension reduction performances of three obtained ionic surfactants were systematically investigated. And the results confirmed all the resultant surfactants could effectively reduce the surface and interfacial tension of the solution, and the CMC values were all determined approximately to 0.1 mg/mL. Meanwhile, three surfactants exhibit relatively low Krafft temperatures (below 6 ℃) and good wettability to oil-wetted surface. To further explore their promising applications, HPE anionic was proposed for use as a stabilizer in emulsion polymerization. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements as well as transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation confirmed well-defined latex was obtained indeed. Moreover, as compared to latex synthesized by using the traditional small molecule compound surfactants, latex synthesized using HPE anionic as stabilizer exhibit improved tolerance to salinity. This beneficial result is probably caused by the special hyperbranched structure of HPE anionic , which contributes both electrostatic repulsion and steric hindrance drive force for the stabilization of latex particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]