Emulsion Copolymerization of Vegetable Oil Macromonomers Possessing both Acrylic and Allylic Functionalities

摘要

A soybean oil-based vegetable oil macromonomer (VOMM) was incorporated as a comonomer into an all-acrylic copolymer via semi-continuous emulsion polymerization. Structurally, VOMMs are comprised of long hydrocarbon fatty acid moieties with allylic double bonds which enable auto-oxidative crosslinking at ambient temperature. VOMMs facilitate low temperature film formation and the fatty acid chains tethered to the polymer backbone auto-oxidize upon film formation to yield crosslinked films. Latexes with varying VOMM levels were synthesized to elucidate the effect of VOMMs on the pre-cure and post-cure glass transition temperature (T_g) and minimum film formation temperature (MFT). Thermoplastic control latexes (without VOMM) were also synthesized via copolymerization of butyl acrylate and methyl methacrylate. This paper details the characterization performed to validate and quantify the VOMM allylic unsaturation retention before, during, and after polymerization, and to quantify and confirm the increase in T_g resulting from auto-oxidative crosslinking via solid state ~(13)C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry.