A comprehensive study on the application properties of different soft, hard, and functional monomers to polyacrylate emulsion and water‐based inks

Abstract

The urge to protect the deteriorating ecosystem is compelling us to develop environmental‐friendly materials. In this paper, three different kinds of waterborne polyacrylate emulsions were synthesized with different hard, soft and hydroxyl‐containing functional monomers by semi‐continuous seed emulsion polymerization. Moreover, the influences of different monomers on the performances such as viscosity, adhesion, surface tension, particle size, stability, and contact angle were also investigated. Attractively, conclusions were deduced that with the growth of the monomer's alkyl chain length, the viscosity gradually increases and the surface tension gradually decreases. On the other hand, different functional monomers also have effect on the properties of the synthesized acrylic emulsions. Then the synthesized water‐based acrylic emulsions were used as binders for water‐based inks, the adhesion as well as initial dryness were tested and the recipe for water‐based ink with better performances was selected out. Our work maybe ignites a spark for the designation of acrylic emulsions for water‐based inks binders.