Waterborne latexes based on acrylates or methacrylates are used in paint industry. However, these polymers are generally amorphous. In order to check the effect of crystallanity, researchers from Germany and Spain synthesized waterborne copolymer latexes of stearyl acrylate-co-short chain (meth)acrylate (a mixture of methyl metacrylate, n-butyl acrylate, acrylic acid and acrylamide) by using different 2-step polymerization strategies. The effect of monomer composition and polymerization strategies on the crystallinity and mechanical properties of polymer films were investigated.
It was shown that the mechanical properties of copolymer and paint films increased with crystallinity. Moreover, the hydrophobicity and pendulum hardness of the paints increased with crystallinity and the scrub resistance of paint films decreased with increasing crystallinity.
Progress in Organic Coatings
Volume 106, May 2017, Pages 11–19