Preparation and Characterization of Cationic Emulsion of Styrene and Acrylate

The control of particle size and its distribution has become more and more important both in theory and in practice of emulsion polymerization field. In this study, cationic styrene-acrylate copolymer containing functional monomer was converted into water-soluble polymers by reaction with quaternising agents and acids with the free-soap emulsion polymerization method. The latex was obtained at the existence of nitrogen by the copolymerization of hydrophobic monomer styrene and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate, hydrophilic monomer dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate, modified PVA-0588 as the emulsifiers. The influences of the amount of azoisobutyronitrile initiator, the amount of dimethyl sulphate quaternising agent, reactivity ratio between monomers, charge density and pH value on the preparation process were discussed. The particle size and particle distribution was strongly affected by these factors. The results showed that the latex with narrow particle distribution and mean particle size about 100nm was obtained under redox system by adjusting 33% monomer to become precursor and dropping the rest of 67% monomer, after polymerization, N,N-dimethylamino groups were fully quaternised with dimethyl sulphate to improve the stability of the solutions. The glass temperature of polymer was 58.1°C, as pH values range of solution was 3~5, the stability and charge density of polymer emulsion could improve.