Synthesis of Polystyrene-Rubber Waterborne Nanoparticles by Miniemulsion Polymerization

LUDMILA IRENE RONCO; ROQUE JAVIER MINARI; JORGE RUBÉN VEGA; LUIS MARCELINO GUGLIOTTA

Granada

Congreso; European Polymer Congress 2011; 2011

Actually research on waterborne hybrid latexes has gained a lot of interest, since it is considered as the opportunity for developing new products based on the synergy effects of the adopted compounds. Polystyrene/rubber waterborne hybrid systems are expected to combine positive properties to produce nanoparticles with high impact resistance. The improvement of properties is expected to be maximum with intimate contact of both materials. Unfortunately, polystyrene (PS) and polybutadiene (PB) are not compatible. Miniemulsion (mE) polymerization allows the incorporation of hydrophobic components, like PB based rubbers, into PS particles. The molecular structure of rubber, the formulation and polymerization conditions affect the phase compatibilization. In this work, the mE polymerization is used to synthesize waterborne PS/PB based-rubber (anionic PB and styrene-butadiene random copolymer: SBR) nanocomposites; and the effect of the process variables and rubber architecture was investigated.