Swelling behavior of emulsion polymer particles: Comparison between fully cross-linked and partially cross-linked poly(acrylate) latexes

Measurement of swelling is used to estimate the extent of cross-linking of latex particles prepared by emulsion polymerization. In this paper we report swelling data as a function of solvent activity for two latexes: (1) a poly(butylacrylate) (PBA) latex, and (2) a poly(isodecylacrylate) latex. In the latter case comparison is made between the swelling behavior of fully cross-linked, i.e., networks without free polymer chains, and partially cross-linked latexes. It is demonstrated that the equilibrium swelling properties are only slightly affected by the presence of uncross-linked chains. Swelling gives reliable results for the cross-link density only if the latex does not contain free chains.