Preparation and characterization of polysiloxane-poly(butyl acrylate–styrene) composite latices and their film properties

Gamma ray induced seeded emulsion co-polymerization of styrene and butyl acrylate was carried out in the presence of polymerizable polysiloxane seed latex which was obtained by the ring opening co-polymerization of octamethyl cyclotetrasiloxane (D4) and tetramethyl tetravinyl cyclotetrasiloxane (VD4) catalyzed by dodecylbenzene sulphonic acid (DBSA). A series of polysiloxane seed latices with different molecular weight, vinyl content, and particle size were used. The conversion–time curve showed that the polymerization rate was accelerated much by the seed latex. The obtained composite latices also showed good storage stability, mechanical stability and high electrolyte resistance ability. The morphology of the composite latex particles was found to be a quite uniform fine structure by transmission electron microscope (TEM). The graft polymerization between polymerizable polysiloxane and butyl acrylate or styrene was confirmed by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and the graft efficiency was also studied. The influence of seed content, molecular weight, vinyl content of the polysiloxane and seed latex particles size to the mechanical performance, water absorption ratio, surface properties, transparency and UV resistance of the latex films, was also investigated.