| Abstract: | Free-radical addition polymerization can be carried out using four different processes: mass or bulk, solution, suspension, and emulsion polymerization. Of these four processes, emulsion polymerization is unique because it is a heterogeneous process, in which the polymerization reactions can take place in three different sites: in the continuous aqueous phase, on the surface of growing particles, and within the growing particles. This unique feature of emulsion polymerization offers many possibilities for designing different polymers and latexes: e.g., high-molecular-weight polymers, uniform copolymers, copolymers of difficult-to-copolymerize monomers, functionalized (surface-modified) latexes, uniform size latex particles, grafted latexes, and structured latexes having core-shell, microdomain structures, interpenetrating polymer networks, etc. This paper will describe several aspects of the control of structure in emulsion polymerization. |
