APE-Free Surfactants for Emulsion Polymerization of Latexes with Higher Solid Content
The importance of emulsion polymerization in the coatings industry has increased in the last decades due to environmental awareness and the replacement of solvent-based paints by water-based systems.1,2 Acrylic resins, which have an important commercial application in the paint industry, are prepared through the emulsion polymerization of acrylic or methacrylic acids and their corresponding esters as well as vinyl monomers, such as styrene.
High-solid-content latexes are of growing interest since these allow for increasing reactor output and developing paint formulations with higher solid content, as well as reducing transportation and storage costs.3 Several studies have highlighted the importance of controlling particle size distribution and the number of particles in order to develop high-solid latexes.3,4 It is very well known that surfactants, due to their important role in nucleation, growth and stability of latex particles,5-7 impact particle size distribution and number of final latexes.