Abstract
Adhesives (Paint and Glue) are widely used both in industrial and domestic space. In the market, an adhesive is as good as its colloid stability. In the South African industrial emulsion polymerisation space, colloid stability is achieved using special interfacial components such as surfactants and water-soluble polymers to avoid aggregation resulting in latex with low solid content. However, these materials tend to be relatively expensive compared to nanoparticles. We aim to substitute traditional expensive stabilisers with cheaper nanoparticles to reduce production costs of high-performance composites. Semi-batch emulsion polymerisation was used to synthesise polyvinyl-co-butyl acrylate emulsion since the process is most suitable for the monomers in use and it is an industrially viable process. We separated the project into three different phases to address the question of monomer ratio (phase 1), filler concentration and filler feeding (phase 2), as well as research prototype comparison with market products (phase 3). Rheometry, TEM, and contact angle as well as adhesive testing were regarded as the main characterisation techniques, supported by UV-Vis, TGA, FTIR, and solid content testing. Nanoparticles have also shown good improvement to adhesive properties of other co-polymer systems. Based on the literature that was considered, we believe that the PVAc-co-BA system has not been stabilised using nanoparticles; this application is the novelty of this project.
M.Tech. (Chemistry)