REACTIVE SURFACTANTS IN EMULSION POLYMERIZATION

Covalent binding of the surfactants to the polymers obtained from emulsion polymerization is expected to improve some properties of the resulting latexes and also of the films formed from these latexes. This is possible if the surfactants include functional groups capable of interacting with the radical polymerization process. These functional groups may be a polymerizable function so that the surfactant is a comonomer, named in this review SURFMER. Alternatively it may be an initiator (INISURF) or a transfer agent (TRANSURF). The paper is a literature review of the state of the art and illustrates the increasing interest in this field. The main trends and some prospects are discussed in the conclusions.