The application research of environment-friendly reactive surfactants in acrylate emulsion pressure sensitive adhesives

Abstract In this article acrylate pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) latexes were synthesized via a pre-emulsion seeded semi-batch emulsion polymerization process with a conventional nonreactive surfactant (CO-436) and two polymerizable surfactants (traditional surfmer SE-10N and environment-friendly surfmer SR-10). The effects of surfactant contents on the particle size, zeta potential, electrolyte stability of the latexes and gel content, sol molecular weight (Mw, Mn), water absorption of the PSA copolymers were investigated. In addition, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and contact angle measurements were used to characterize the latex films. The results showed that the particle sizes of latexes prepared with surfmers were smaller than their CO-436 containing counterparts. And the latexes prepared with surfmers had a lower storage stability than the one prepared with CO-436. However, surfmers can improve the electrolyte stability of the latex. Furthermore, the water resistances of the latexes prepared with surfmers were better than that of the latex with CO-436, which can be confirmed by water absorption, contact angle and XPS analysis. The results also indicated that the PSA prepared with SR-10 exhibited the highest gel content among the three surfactants. Finally, the effects of surfactants on the adhesive properties of the PSAs were also evaluated.