Agglomeration, particle, dispersions copolymers

PVA Particles. Dispersions were prepared in order to examine stabilization for a core polymer having a glass transition temperature below the dispersion polymerization temperature. PVA particles prepared with a block copolymer having M PS) x 10000 showed a tendency to flocculate at ambient temperature during redispersion cycles to remove excess block copolymer, particularly if the dispersion polymerization had not proceeded to 100 conversion of monomer. It is well documented that on mixing solutions of polystyrene and poly(vinyl acetate) homopolymers phase separation tends to occur (10,11), and solubility studies (12) of PS in n-heptane suggest that PS blocks with Mn(PS) 10000 will be close to dissolution when dispersion polymerizations are performed at 3 +3 K. Consequently, we may postulate that for soft polymer particles the block copolymer is rejected from the particle because of an incompatibility effect and is adsorbed at the particle surface. If the block copolymer desorbs from the particle surface, then particle agglomeration will occur unless rapid adsorption of other copolymer molecules occurs from a reservoir of excess block copolymer. 

It is not possible to produce a dispersion of rubber particles in the thermoset precursors due to their agglomeration. It is possible, however, to synthesize a stable emulsion or suspension of rubber particles in one of the monomers. These particles, stabilized by copolymers and surfactants, may be considered as a limiting case of CSR particles when the shell thickness tends to zero. The use of dispersed acrylic rubbers (Sue et al., 1996a and Ashida et al., 1999) and poly(dimethyl-siloxane) (PDMS) emulsions (Rey et al., 1999), have been reported. 

The diameters of the particles, prepared from dispersion, are approximately 120 nm each. The powder morphology of spray-dried PMMA grafted siloxane particles is illustrated in Fig. 3a the spherical agglomerates are approximately 1-20 pm in size. The microstructure of the graft copolymer after processing is shown in Fig. 3b. 

The object of this study was to clarify some aspects of the mechanism of shear-induced flocculation in colloidal dispersions. Vinyl chloride homopolymer and copolymer latices were prepared by emulsion polymerization using sodium dodecyl sulphate as emulsifier. Agglomeration behavior in these latices was studied by measuring the mechanical stability using a high speed stirring test. The latex particle size was measured by an analytical centrifuge. Molecular areas of emulsifier in the saturated adsorption layer at the surface of homopolymer and copolymer latex particles were estimated from adsorption titration data. 

---