Preparation of Butyl Acrylate/Alkyd System via Hybrid Miniemulsion Polymerization and Characterization of the Produced Polymer

In this research, the miniemulsion polymerization method was used to prepare a hybrid polymer system based on an alkyd resin and an acrylic monomer. For this purpose a medium oil length alkyd resin, butyl acrylate monomer, sodium lauryl sulphate as an emulsifier, cetyl alcohol as a miniemulsion co-stabilizer and potassium persulphate as an initiator were used. To prepare miniemulsion an ultrasonic mixer was used. It was found that the resulting polymer had a broad molecular weight distribution and a bimodal particle size distribution about 138 nm and 550 nm. Furthermore, two glass temperature were observed (at -18°C and -41°C) which showed the presence of two distinct components in final resin. One of them obtained from grafting of acrylic monomer on alkyd resin via reaction with double bonds of fatty acid of alkyd resin and the other one from homopolymerization of acrylic monomer in the continuous phase (water) which is confirmed with results obtained from GPC.