Water whitening resistance of pressure-sensitive adhesives obtained from high solids content acrylic dispersions is studied. The effect of the pH and surfactant system on the water whitening of the final films is investigated. The pH used throughout the polymerization process and the pH at which the final latex is adjusted just before the application have a substantial influence on the water whitening resistance. The performance of films obtained from latexes stabilized using conventional surfactant is compared to that of latexes stabilized using polymerizable surfactant or polymerizable stabilizer. In the films containing the conventional anionic surfactant, the water whitening phenomenon is affected by two counteracting mechanisms: latex stability and excess of surfactant in the aqueous phase. However, when polymerizable surfactants or stabilizer are used, due to their incorporation into the polymer backbone, no effect of the surfactant excess is observed leading to films with superior performance increasing their concentration. Macromol. Mater. Eng. 2015, 9, 925-936 ß 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 926 www.MaterialsViews.comN/D not determined. a) Per liter of water (mmol Á L -1 ); b) measured by DLS; c) measured by HPLC-ELSD.

The strong nucleophilic character of germa-closo-dodecaborate towards late transition metal centres is described. The synthesis and characterisation of the first germa-closo-dodecaborate complexes are presented, and the solid state structures of the germaborate transition metal complexes were determined by X-ray crystal structure analyses. The strong trans influence of the new germaborate ligand was determined by IR spectroscopy and NMR coupling constants.

This article describes the synthesis and characterization of the first silver complex with the germylene [GeB11H11](2-) and coinage metal complexes with the stannylene ligand [SnB11H11](2-). Starting materials like CuCl, AuCl(Me2S), and AgNO3 were used to give mononuclear (3 and 4), dinuclear (5), hexanuclear (6), and heptanuclear (7) coordination compounds: [Et4N]5[Cu(CH3CN)(SnB11H11)3] (3), [Et4N]5[Ag(SnB11H11)3] (4), [Et4N]6[{Au(SnB11H11)2}2] (5), [Et4N]6[{Ag(GeB11H11)}6] (6), and [Et4N]9[Ag7(SnB11H11)8] (7). In case of the oligonuclear compounds 5-7 silver and gold aggregation was observed under formation of metal-metal bonds. Furthermore, the germa-closo-dodecaborate is found in a hitherto unknown μ3-bridging coordination mode connecting three silver atoms. The new compounds were characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction and in the case of 3-6 also by NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis.

The two nucleophilic heteroborates germa-closo-dodecaborate and stanna-closo-dodecaborate show different reactivity toward the electrophile [PdCl2(Xantphos)]: In the case of the germanium ligand we found straightforward substitution of one chloride ligand and formation of a Ge–Pd bond. The tin ligand also reacts to give the substitution products [PdCl(SnB11H11)(Xantphos)]− and [Pd(SnB11H11)(Xantphos)], but the complexes exhibit a subsequent reaction under activation of a B–H and P–C bond. A dinuclear Pd(I)–Pd(I) complex featuring a P–B bond was characterized, and during its formation the evolution of benzene was detected. The respective germanium derivative does not show an activation reaction even at elevated temperature.

Germa-closo-dodecaborate reacts with the elements sulfur, selenium and tellurium to give well defined products: [S-GeB(11)H(11)](2-), [Se-GeB(11)H(11)](2-) and [Te-GeB(11)H(11)](2-). The chalcogen adducts were characterized by single crystal structure analysis, NMR and IR spectroscopy. By using quantum chemical methods the nature of the germanium chalcogen bond was studied. Furthermore the first transition metal complexes of [S-GeB(11)H(11)](2-) and [S-SnB(11)H(11)](2-) with Pd and Pt were synthesized and characterized, showing that the dianionic chalcogen adducts can be used as new ligands in transition metal chemistry.