Advances in Polymer Latex Technology

Book excerpt: The polymer latex technology by emulsion polymerisation offers significant advantages as compared to bulk and solution polymerisation technologies owing to the better control of heat and viscosity of the medium along with the possibility of increasing the molecular weight of the polymer chains without affecting the rate of polymerisation. These emulsion polymerisation methods have undergone significant advances in the recent years and now a days, synthesis of structured latexes with well defined morphologies and properties has been possible. The development of miniemulsion polymerisation has helped to polymerise very hydrophobic and very hydrophilic monomers, which otherwise are difficult to be polymerised with the conventional emulsion polymerisation. The combination of controlled living polymerisation methods like nitroxide mediated polymerisation, atom transfer radical polymerisation as well as reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer with the emulsion and miniemulsion polymerisation methods has resulted into the synthesis of functional block copolymer chains, graft copolymer chains and star or multi arm copolymer chains in the polymer particles. Apart from that, specific surface modifications on the surface of the emulsion particles have been achieved which have expended the area of application of such polymer particles. The kinetics and mechanism of particle generation with the living polymerisation in emulsion and miniemulsion are very complex, however, the recent advances have helped to understand these systems more clearly, thus, allowing to steer them to the advantage. Therefore, these recent advances in the latex technology need to be brought into a cumulative text in order to provide insight into the various possibilities of achieving the optimum latexes.