PARTIAL SWELLING OF LATEX-PARTICLES BY 2 MONOMERS

The swelling of polymeric latex particles with solvent and monomer is of great importance for the emulsion polymerization process in regard to composition drift and rate of polymerization. For the monomer combi nation, methyl acrylate-vinyl acetate, both saturation and partial swe lling were determined experimentally. Theories for saturation swelling and partial swelling of the separate monomers are in good agreement w ith experimental results. Based on previous work an extended thermodyn amic model for monomer partitioning at partial swelling of latex parti cles by two monomers with limited water solubility is developed. Resul ts predicted by this model are in good agreement with observed monomer partitioning.