AbstractThe chemical and physical properties of synthetic polymers depend strongly on the polymerization process. This fact is even more determinant when dealing with copolymers. Styrene/butyl acrylate copolymers were synthesized using an emulsion copolymerization process. The amount of initiator, emulsifier, and transfer agent were varied in a systematic way in order to establish the relationship between polymerization conditions and rheological properties of the molten copolymers. Rheological and molecular weight results show that the different polymerization conditions have important effects on the properties of the final copolymers mainly through the development of different sequence distributions of the monomeric units in the copolymer chain. These results have been interpreted in terms of the kinetic mechanisms that explain the emulsion copolymerization processes. Furthermore, the rheological characterization is used as an additional tool in establishing the different structure of the resulting copolymers.
展开▼
