Characterization and Particle Size Control of Acrylic Polymer Latex Prepared with Green Surfactants

The application of green surfactants, which have low toxicity, excellent biodegradability in emulsion polymerization, has not been reported in the literature. In the present paper, alkyl polyglycosides (APG) and sodium alpha-olefin sulfonate (SAOS) were used as the nonionic emulsifier and anionic emulsifier, respectively to synthesize acrylic polymer latex. The acrylic polymer latex was prepared via semi-continuous seeded emulsion polymerization of butyl acrylate (BA) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) in water phase initiated with potassium persulfate (KPS) when nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEOs) and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS) and are replaced with APG and SAOS, respectively. Both APG and SAOS have low toxicity, excellent biodegradability and outstanding properties. The structure of the acrylic polymer latex was confirmed with FTIR spectrum. Differential scanning calorimetry confirmed that the resultant latex is a kind of random copolymer. The unimodal distribution of particle size also confirmed that the acrylic polymer latex was prepared successfully. Factors, which have an influence on particle size of the resultant latex, were studied in detail. The optimum recipe of preparing the acrylic polymer latex with small particle size was obtained.