Properties of PHMS-g-P [butylacrylate (BA)-N-hydtoxylmethyl acrylamide (NMA)] graft copolymer emulsions

Emulsion graft copolymerization of poly(hydrogenmethylsiloxane) (PHMS) and butyl acrylate (BA) in the presence of functional comonomer N-hydroxyl-meth yl acrylamide (NMA) was conducted by batch emulsion copolymerization to mod ify the properties of polysiloxane. Morphology of graft copolymer particles was characterized by transmission electron microscopy. The effect of polym erization method, PHMS content, initiator concentration, and NMA content on stability of emulsion, morphology, size of particle, and rheological prope rties were investigated. It has been found that stability of emulsion is be tter by semicontinuous emulsion polymerization than that of batch emulsion polymerization and it increased with increasing PHMS-NMA concentration. Inc reasing PHMS concentration and NMA concentration, the particle size and the viscosities increase. The property of resistance to electrolytes of graft copolymer emulsions and swelling property of film were also discussed. Resu lts showed PHMS-g-P [butylacrylate (BA)-N-hydroxyl-methyl acrylamide (NMA)] graft copolymer emulsion has good resistance to electrolytes and the water absorption of its film increases with increasing BA-NMA content grafted on to PHMS. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.