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APE-free surfactants for emulsion polymerization |
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The study presents APE-free surfactants developed for emulsion polymerization and their versatility to be used with the main monomers employed in latexes for architectural coatings. Vinyl-acrylic latexes and paints prepared with different APE-free packages of surfactants presented good overall stability, remarkable improvement in wet scrub resistance and comparable performance in touchup when evaluated against latexes and paints prepared with benchmark APE-based surfactants. All-acrylic latex prepared with APE-free surfactant package delivered comparable or better performance in wet scrub resistance when evaluated against a benchmark APE-based latex from the market in high, medium, and low VOC paints. Styrene-acrylic latexes were prepared with conventional 50 wt% solid content with APE-free surfactants and the studies showed that latexes with solid content close to 60% and particle size lower than 200 nm can be stabilized by these surfactants. Finally, a new nonionic reactive surfactant was evaluated in the emulsion polymerization of styrene-acrylic latex and its incorporation was appraised in a 30% PVC paint, which showed 150% increase in wet scrub resistance when compared against the same latex synthesized with conventional nonionic surfactant |