REACTIVE SURFACTANTS IN HETEROPHASE POLYMERIZATION FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE POLYMERS - PART 1 - SYNTHESIS OF FUNCTIONALIZED POLY(ETHYLENEOXIDE)B-POLY(BUTYLENEOXIDE) COPOLYMERS AS SURFMERS INISURFS AND TRANSURFS IN HETEROPHASE POLYMERIZATION

A variety of nonionic reactive surfactants have been prepared from blo ck copolymer precursors. These precursors are formed from a commercial ly available polyoxyethylene glycol monomethyl-ether as the hydrophili c sequence of the surfactant; this product is used as initiator of rin g opening anionic polymerization of butylene oxide. Finally the reacti ve surfactants are obtained after proper functionalization of the prec ursor. The reactive surfactants are an inisurf with an asymmetric azo compound, a transurf with a thiol group, and a few surfmers with acryl ic, methacrylic, styrenic and alpha-methyl styrenic reactive groups. T hese compounds have been engaged in styrene emulsion or dispersion pol ymerization. Several of them have been found to be useful for preparin g stable latices.