Preparation and characterization of polystyrene microcapsules containing liquid polysulfide rubber

In this paper, the microcapsules containing liquid polysulfide rubber (LPR) are firstly prepared by solvent evaporation method with dichloromethane (DCM) as solvent and polystyrene (PS) as shell material. The effects of surfactant type and dosage, stirring rate, core-shell mass ratio and oil/water phase volume ratio on the encapsulation effect of LPR are investigated to obtain the following optimized preparation condition: using 4 wt% NaOA solution as the dispersed phase, DCM as the volatile organic solvent, stirring rate of 500 rpm as the preparation conditions, the obtained microcapsules are spherical and smooth, the average particle size is 30.01 μm, the ratio of oil phase to water phase is 1:6, and the core-shell mass ratio is 0.8:1. The content of LPR in microcapsules is 43%, which is calculated according to the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) curve. The research results provide an important theoretical basis and technical support for promoting the engineering application of viscous fluid materials represented by LPR.