Effect of short-chain alcohols on the oil-in-water microemulsion polymerization of styrene

The influence of short-chain alcohols, l-butanol (C4OH), 2-pentanol (C5OH) and 1-hexanol (C6OH), on the formation of oil-in-water styrene microemulsio ns and the subsequent free-radical polymerization was studied. Sodium dodec yl sulfate was used as the surfactant. The overall performance of C4OH as t he cosurfactant is quite different from C5OH and C6OH. The range of the mic roemulsion region in decreasing order is C4OH > C5OH > C6OH. The primary pa rameters selected for the microemulsion polymerization study were the conce ntrations of cosurfactant and styrene. Only a small fraction of microemulsi on droplets initially present in the reaction system can be successfully tr ansformed into latex particles and the remaining droplets serve as a reserv oir to supply the growing particles with monomer. Limited flocculation of l atex particles also occurs during polymerization and the degree of floccula tion is most significant for the C4OH system.