Final Report Summary - LATEX FILM FORMATION (Investigations on the effect of reactive surfactants on latex film microstructure and properties via tracer diffusion.)
The performance of this surfmer in latex synthesis via emulsion polymerization was found to be comparable to SDS with respect to particle size, polydispersity and stability of the dispersions. Polystyrene (PS) latexes were prepared with surfmer and the microstructure of the obtained PS-surfmer copolymers was then studied with static light scattering in the nonpolar solvent toluene. PS was used as this polymer is very well studied and results could be easily compared with literature. Toluene was chosen as it can be expected that structure formation in this nonpolar solvent will provide insights in structures present in the final latex films after drying. We found a supramolecular structure formation which originates from a combination of aggregation to inverse micelles with a concentration dependent association of these aggregates to long filamentous microstructures.