Emulsion (or miniemulsion) polymerization of plant oil-based monomers with methyl methacrylate, styrene or vinyl acetate yields highly stable latexes (bio-based content of 3 – 35 wt. %) with uniform spherical particles (80 – 160 nm) and copolymer number-average molecular weight (20,000 - 150,000). Length of the synthesized macromolecules decreases by increasing degree of unsaturation in the plant oil-based monomers and their content in monomer feed. Double bonds of the plant oil-based monomer fatty acid fragments remain mainly unaffected during the free radical (co)polymerization process. These unsaturated fragments in the side chains of the resulting macromolecules make them capable to post-polymerization reactions, i.e. cross-linking of polymer coatings/films. Incorporation of plant oil-based fragments in the copolymers decreases glass transition temperature from 105oC to 79oC (in copolymerization with MMA), and from 30oC to 11oC (for copolymers with Vac). Tensile properties of latex films indicate that although poly (methyl methacrylate) is rigid and brittle material with a little elongation, presence of the bio-based fragments transforms PMMA into elastic film-forming polymer with elongation at break up to 240 %. In addition, even small amount of plant oil-based fragments incorporated into the structure of poly(vinyl acetate) copolymer increases water resistance and hydrophobicity of the resulting latex films - water contact angle of films from poly(vinyl acetate) with incorporated plant oil fragments is around 60°. These results indicate that the acrylic monomers from plant oils can be considered as specialty monomers (polymer modifiers), even at their low content (2-5 % wt.) to provide unique properties and performance (flexibility, toughness, water resistance, adhesion, etc.) of resulting polymeric materials in various industrial applications. Particularly, water resistance of coatings and their mechanical properties can be improved by internal plasticization provided by copolymerizing the plant oil-based monomers.

Synthesis of latexes from plant oil-based acrylic monomers

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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