The miniemulsion and macroemulsion polymerization of vinyl acetate with vinyl versatate in batch and semibatch systems was investigated. Vinyl versatate was added either as an emulsion with the vinyl acetate, or as a neat liquid stream. In the batch runs, there is a poor dispersion of vinyl versatate during the nucleation period for the runs in which the vinyl versatate was added neat at the beginning of the polymerization. This led to smaller particles, lower polymerization rate, and different polymer composition evolution when compared with runs in which the vinyl versatate was emulsified with the vinyl acetate. In seeded semibatch runs, residual surfactant in the seed latex, along with the propensity for homogeneous nucleation in vinyl acetate emulsions, resulted in continuing nucleation during the entire semibatch interval. The polymerization rate was primarily affected by monomer feed rate rather than the feeding mode. The effect of monomer feeding mode on copolymer composition was weak when the semibatch feed rate was low, indicating some level of vinyl versatate mass transfer resistance. In all runs, only one glass transition temperature was observed, indicating effective copolymerization. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [References: 13]
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