DETERMINATION OF PHASE INVERSION POINT IN THE EMULSIFICATION OF POLYMERS

Polymer Physics Laboratory, Institute of Chemistry,The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China

DETERMINATION OF PHASE INVERSION POINT IN THE EMULSIFICATION OF POLYMERS*

Phase inversion emulsification technique is a recently developed method to achievewaterborne dispersions of polymer resin. It is found that the electrica and rheologicalproperties of the system experience abrupt changes in the vicinity of the phase inversionpoint (PIP). Before PIP the system is a Newtonian fluid. At PIP the continuous phasetransforms from polymer resin to water phase with the result that the electrical resistanceof the system drops abruptly Meanwhile, the system at PIP exhibits high visco-elasticity originated from the formation of a physical gel alike structure among thewaterborne perticles. Besides, the morphology evolution is observed by ScanningElectron Microcopy (SEM).