INFLUENCES OF ACID POST-TREATMENT ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF SOAPFREE P（MMA-EA-MAA） PARTICLES PREPARED BY SEEDED EMULSION POLYMERIZATION

Soap-free poly(methyl methacrylate-ethyl acrylate-methacrylic acid) latex particles with narrow size distribution were synthesized by seeded emulsion polymerization, and the porous particles were created by a stepwise alkali/acid treatment method. Effects of acid treatment conditions on the particle morphology were investigated. Results show that one to three pores were formed inside most of particles after post-treatment. At pH 7.0, when the treatment temperature was lower than 70℃, the size of particles and the volume of pores remained almost unchanged, and these two values increased significantly when the temperature was higher than 70℃. Both the particle size and the pore volume decreased with the increase of initial pH value and treatment time in the acid treatment. As the pH was below 4.0 and the treatment time was longer than 180 min, the particles shrunk in size.