Synthesis of poly (n-butyl acrylates) by a novel microemulsion polymerization for PSAs applications

Pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are the adhesive materials that can provide strong adhesion to solid surfaces under a light contact pressure for a short time. A novel microemulsion polymerization was established to obtain high adhesion properties of PSA on the basis of poly (n-butyl acrylates) (PBA). Stable PBA microemulsion with high solids content had been synthesized. Z-average size could be smaller than 20 nm with anionic emulsifier N4SES-AQ. FT-IR spectra showed that the C=C contained in monomers had gone through a reaction. The result of DSC testing showed that n-butyl acrylate (BA) and acrylic acid (AA) were well copolymerized. A good adhesion performance can be reached when N4SES-AQ is 0.5 wt% and 180° peel strength could reach 680.1 N/m. The PSA tapes produced from the resulting PBA microemulsion showed adhesion properties suitable for practical applications.