Effects of reaction pathway in emulsion copolymerisation on film mechanical properties

Films obtained from structured latex particles, based on acrylic copolymers produced by a variety of processes, have been characterised by static and dynamic mechanical analysis. Furthermore, the expected heterogeneous structure obtained in staged emulsions, the so called “core‐shell” morphology has been reinforced, in some cases, by introduction of a reactive comonomer in the polymerisation recipe. The epoxy function which can be readily analysed, was also chosen for its potential reactivity at high and low temperatures. The obtained results have shown the close correlation between particle microstructure due to peripheral growth and mechanical properties of corresponding latex films.