Environmentally-Friendly Acrylates-Based Polymer Latices - Advanced Materials for Agriculture, Food and Environmental Safety - page 167

Fan et al. [160] studied the process of self-curing of water-based acrylic
adhesives. h e composition contained acrylic ester emulsion, which could be
self-cured by introducing epoxy and acrylamide groups. h e adhesives showed
excellent adhesion and solder resistance when the ratio of the two self-curing
monomers was 7:6. h e self-curing reaction was illustrated by IR spectra.

6.2.2 Applications of Acrylic Polymers

Aqueous emulsion polymers [161] are environmentally-friendly alter-
natives to traditional solvent-based polymers. h e technology of water-
based polymer binders (or dry powders) play a key role with regard to
sustainability in many market segments. h e acrylic latexes prepared by
the emulsion polymerization were used in various i elds. Latexes are aque-
ous dispersions of solid polymeric particles obtained through an emulsion
polymerization technique. Due to its environmentally-friendly attributes,
as well as the special features of the synthesis and its structure-property
interrelated characteristics, emulsion polymerization has been the subject
of extensive research during the past sixty years. Polymers obtained by
emulsion polymerization have the advantage of reaching high molecular
weights without developing the increased viscosity characteristic of other
polymers. In this way, a wide variety of homopolymers and copolymers
obtained by emulsion polymerization have proven applications in i elds
such as coatings, adhesives, synthetic rubbers, l oor polishes and additives
amongst others. h e i rst line of waterborne acrylic emulsion paints called
“Liquitex” was produced in 1954 [162].
Butyl acrylate is one of the principal acrylic monomers included in
emulsions intended for decorative coatings. In many cases it is copoly-
merized with MMA to obtain a i lm of the requisite degree of hardness
[163]. Yoshida [164] proposed weather-resistant lacquer compositions
based on a copolymer of BA and MMA. A solution of this copolymer and
4-methacryloyloxy-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-piperdine, when sprayed on a ure-
thane enamel-coated surface, gave coatings with good weather, water and
alcohol resistances. El-Aasser and Vanderhof et al. have systematically
investigated dif erent ef ects of emulsion copolymerization of vinyl acetate
(VA) and BA on latex particle size, molecular weight, latex stability, surface
characteristics and the morphological, mechanical properties of their i lms
[165-169]. Copolymer [170] synthesized using BA-acrylonitrile-acrylic
acid was used as peelable coatings.
Grubert et al. [171] synthesized aqueous polymer dispersions of a
halogen-containing monomer (vinyl dichloride) by copolymerization with
BA. h e polymer gave a i lm without discoloration. h e MMA-co-BA [25]