Synthesis and characterization of emulsion polymers of methyl methacrylate and 2-ethyl hexylacrylate

In this study, poly(methyl meth acrylate-2-ethylhexyl acrylate) latexes was synthesized by emulsion polymerization. In latexes synthesis, different monomer ratio methyl methacrylate and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate was used with acrylic acid and methacrylic acid in 2% as a stabilizer. In the studies, sodium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES) and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) as anionic surfactants and 10, 25, 40 mol ethoxylated nonyl phenols as nonionic surfactants was used. All of the studies were performed using ammonium persulphate initiator at 70oC. The latexes were characterized with solid content, viscosity, particle size distributions, zeta potentials, and glass transition temperature and stress-strain analyses. It was found from the results that stabilization of latexes is good and particle size distributions are monodisperse and nanometric level.