Reactive surfactants in heterophase polymerization. VIII. Emulsion polymerization of alkyl sulfopropyl maleate polymerizable surfactants (surfmers) with styrene

The copolymerization of styrene with two polymerizable surfactants (surfmers) based on maleic acid (dodecyl sodium sulfopropyl maleate and tetradecyl sodium sulfopropyl maleate) was studied in batch emulsion polymerizations. The surfmer conversion was obtained by serum replacement with water and subsequent analysis of the recovered, unreacted surfmers with two-phase titration. It was found that both surfmers copolymerized well with styrene and their partial conversion was higher than that of styrene. These results are contradictory to what was found before in the literature using ultrafiltration with methanol, and the differences are explained on the basis of oligomer formation: The oligomers formed are detected if the latices are washed with methanol. It was found that at the end of the polymerization (almost complete conversion of both styrene and surfmer) only 45% of the surfmer groups were present on the particle surface, which is in agreement with a high conversion of the surfmer at the beginning of the reaction. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 35: 2561–2568, 1997