Synthesis and compositional analysis of co- and ter-polymers of butyl acrylate with vinyl acetate and acrylic acid prepared via emulsion polymerization

Abstract

This investigation reports the synthesis and characterization of copolymers and ter-polymers of butyl acrylate (BA) prepared via emulsion polymerization. Vinyl acetate (VAc) has been used for the synthesis of copolymer and VAc along with acrylic acid (AA) for the synthesis of ter-polymerswith BA. The polymerizations have been carried out at 70°C for 30 minutes at 470 rpm using two different thermal initiators, ammonium persulfate (APS) and potassium persulfate (KPS) and an emulsifier sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Attempts have also been made to prepare co- and ter-polymers of BAwith varying amounts of monomers. The prepared copolymerswere characterized by GPC, FT-IR, NMR and UV-Vis analyses. The percentage of conversion of monomers to polymer has been calculated gravimetrically. UV-Visible analysis has been used to confirm the preparation of transparent lattices. Furthermore, the incorporation of monomers in the co- and ter-polymers are confirmed by FT-IR and ¹H NMR analyses. The molar compositions of the prepared polymers are determined by ¹H NMR analysis comparing the areas under the characteristics ¹H NMR peaks of the repeating units.