Study of the film formation and mechanical properties of the latexes obtained by miniemulsion co-polymerization of butyl acrylate, methyl acrylate and 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane

Miniemulsion polymerization offers several advantages over conventional emulsion polymerization to co-polymerize alkoxysilane monomers, which easily undergo premature hydrolysis and condensation reaction into the polymer particles. The premature hydrolysis and the subsequent condensation reaction can lead to colloidal instability. Furthermore, the premature intra-particle cross-linking will reduce the capability of the latex particles to form films. In this paper we discuss the miniemulsion co-polymerization of the butyl acrylate, methyl acrylate and 3-methacryloxypropyltrimethoxysilane BA-MA-MEMO. The latexes features have been characterized and a compressive explanation of the features has been given. Finally, the work focussed on the study of the latex film formation, and mechanical properties by using nanoindentation trials to measure the superficial properties of the film, and also stress-strain curves have been produced. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.