Nanosized Polystyrene/Poly(Butyl Acrylate) Core‐Shell Latex Particles Functionalized with Acrylamides

Abstract The nanosized polystyrene‐poly(butyl acrylate) latex particles with core‐shell morphology were prepared through two‐stage semi‐continuous starved emulsion polymerization with polystyrene as a seed and butyl acrylate as a second stage monomer. For functionalization, N‐methylol acrylamide (NMA) or N‐(iso‐butoxymethyl) acrylamide (IBMA) were used. The effect of functional groups with different hydrophilicity and their locations in core‐shell particles on the main colloid characteristic of latexes such as particle size, particle size distribution and viscosity were investigated. It was found that the size and viscosity of IBMA functionalized particles does not depend on the location of functional comonomer in the core or shell. In NMA functionalized particles the size, particle size distribution and viscosity strongly depend on the situation of the comonomer during polymerization. The morphologies of functionalized latex particles were examined by transmission electron microscopy. Keywords: core‐shelllatexfunctionalizationpolystyrenebutyl acrylateacrylamide Acknowledgment We are grateful to the grant agency, VEGA, for financial support through grants 1/0059/03.