Sodium p-styrenesulfonate (SPINOMAR® NaSS) is a water-soluble monomer manufactured via a bromine intermediate (Scheme 1). The most attractive properties of NaSS are good surface activity (Figure 1), thermal stability (Figure 2) and radical polymerizability (Table 1). The principal use of NaSS is producing acrylic fiber by emulsion polymerization. PolyNaSS® is the NaSS monomer polymerized, and has excellent thermal stability, transparency and dispersing power, so it has been used as a finishing agent for clothes, dispersants, anti-statics, separation membranes, scale inhibitors and oil field chemicals etc.1
NaSS would be an ideal monomer for emulsion polymerization of acrylate due to its excellent polymerizability and surface activity.2,3 Covalently introduced sulfonate moieties would remarkably enhance the colloidal stability (Figure 3).