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    Oligoglycidol-Functionalised Styrene Macromolecules as Reactive Surfactants in the Emulsion Polymerisation of Styrene: The Impact of Chain Length and Concentration on Particle Size and Colloidal Stability

    Year: 2020

    Journal: Polymers, Volume 12, JUL

    Authors: Waulthers, Kim; van Zandvoort, Ryan; Castermans, Sam; Welzen, Jeroen; Baeten, Evelien; Stout, Kathleen; Keul, Helmut; Mann, Daniel; Buskens, Pascal

    Organizations: Dutch government; province of Limburg

    Keywords: polymer nanoparticles; emulsion polymerization; styrene; reactive surfactant; surfmer; oligoglycidol; colloidal stability

    Reactive surfactants (surfmers), which are covalently attached to the surface of sub-micron sized polymer particles during emulsion polymerisation, are applied to tailor the surface functionality of polymer particles for an application of choice. We present a systematic study on the use of oligoglycidol-functionalised styrene macromolecules as surfmers in the emulsion polymerization of styrene. Firstly, we report the impact of the surfmer concentration on the particle size for polymerisations performed above and below the critical micelle concentration. Secondly, we report the influence of the oligoglycidol chain length on the particle size. Thirdly, we conducted experiments to analyse the influence of the surfmer concentration and its chain length on the colloidal stability of the aqueous polystyrene nanoparticles in sodium chloride solutions. We demonstrated that the size of polystyrene particles could be influenced by changing both the surfmer concentration and its chain length. Furthermore, we showed that the colloidal stability of the oligoglycidol-functionalized polystyrene particles is dependent on the particle size, and not directly related to the oligoglycidol chain length.
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