Polymerizable surfactants transurfs

Polymerizable surfactants capable of working as transfer agents include thiosulfonates, thioalkoxylates and methyl methacrylate dimer/trimer surfactants. Thioalkoxylates with 17-90 ethylene oxide units were produced from ethoxylated 11 bromo-undecanol by replacing the bromine with a thiol group via the thiazonium salt route [8]. In the presence of water-soluble azo initiator the thio ended Transurfs (used at a concentration above the CMC) gave monodispersed latex particles in emulsion polymerization of styrene. However, the incorporation of the Transurf remained low, irrespective of the process used for the polymerization (batch, semibatch, seeded). The stability of the lattices when the surfactant and the transfer function were incorporated in the same molecule was better than when they were decoupled. 

Figure 17.26. Structures of two inisurfs (a and b), i.e. polymerizable surfactants that also serve as polymerization initiators, and two transurfs (d and e), polymerizable surfactants with chain-tranfer capability. One conventional initiator (c) and one conventional chain-tranfer agent (f) are also given...

On the other hand, as an extension of the term, one can find a group that can participate in a polymerization process, as, for instance, as initiator. It has been proposed this group be named inisurfs or transurfs (transfer agents) in a radical polymerization process. By analogy, it has been proposed that the polymerizable surfactants be named surfmers. 

ABS) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). In the emulsion polymerization, reactive surfactants can be used as inisurfs when they can replace both the initiator and the surfactants, as transurfs when they may be used to control the molecular weight, and finally as surfmers when they are used as comonomers which are polymerizable. 

The same problem of incorporation is also under examination with block copolymer of ethylene oxide and butylene oxide, already quoted above for inisurfs and transurfs, but functionalized with various polymerizable groups such as acrylic, methacrylic, and styrenic. These surfactants are produced by ring-opening anionic polymerization of butylene oxide, initiated by the... 

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