High‐Solids Content Waterborne Polymer‐Clay Nanocomposites

Abstract Summary: Waterborne polymer clay nanocomposites (WPCN) were prepared by emulsion and miniemulsion copolymerization of butyl acrylate and methyl methacrylate with enhanced mechanical, thermal and barrier properties for coating applications. Emulsion polymerization was used to synthesize WPCN using pristine Na‐MMT (sodium montmorillonite) and miniemulsion polymerization to prepare the WPCNs when the pristine clay was organically modified and hence its incorporation into the polymerization loci was not guaranteed by the conventional emulsion polymerization technique. Both techniques allowed preparing stable nanocomposite latexes of BA/MMA copolymers with partially exfoliated morphologies as demonstrated by wide X‐ray difraction (WAXD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) measurements. Furthermore, latexes with solids contents up to 45 wt% and manageable viscosities were prepared for the first time using seeded semibatch emulsion polymerization.