Emulsion polymerization of supermicron, monodisperse acrylic copolymer particles with core‐shell structures

Abstract

Abstract The emulsion polymerization of large MMA/BA copolymer particles with narrow particle size distributions and core‐shell structure is described. A series of sequential seeded growth emulsion polymerizations were used to obtain monodisperse particles with diameters of at least 3 μm, at 30% solids contents. Because the core and shell polymers used here were chemically similar, core‐shell structures could not be verified by differential staining tech‐niques. Core‐shell structure was demonstrated by minimum film‐forming temperature studies and by scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with energy dispersive x‐ray analysis, using chlorine‐labeled core polymers. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.