Oligoglycidol-Functionalised Styrene Macromolecules as Reactive Surfactants in the Emulsion Polymerisation of Styrene: The Impact of Chain Length and Concentration on Particle Size and Colloidal Stability

• Main Authors: Kim Waulthers, Ryan van Zandvoort, Sam Castermans, Jeroen Welzen, Evelien Baeten, Kathleen Stout, Helmut Keul, Daniel Mann, Pascal Buskens
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-07-01
• Series: Polymers
• Subjects: polymer nanoparticles; emulsion polymerization; styrene; reactive surfactant; surfmer; oligoglycidol
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/12/7/1557

Reactive surfactants (surfmers), which are covalently attached to the surface of sub-micron sized polymer particles during emulsion polymerisation, are applied to tailor the surface functionality of polymer particles for an application of choice. We present a systematic study on the use of oligoglycidol-functionalised styrene macromolecules as surfmers in the emulsion polymerization of styrene. Firstly, we report the impact of the surfmer concentration on the particle size for polymerisations performed above and below the critical micelle concentration. Secondly, we report the influence of the oligoglycidol chain length on the particle size. Thirdly, we conducted experiments to analyse the influence of the surfmer concentration and its chain length on the colloidal stability of the aqueous polystyrene nanoparticles in sodium chloride solutions. We demonstrated that the size of polystyrene particles could be influenced by changing both the surfmer concentration and its chain length. Furthermore, we showed that the colloidal stability of the oligoglycidol-functionalized polystyrene particles is dependent on the particle size, and not directly related to the oligoglycidol chain length.