Emulsion-based pressure sensitive adhesives from conjugated linoleic acid/styrene/butyl acrylate terpolymers

Free radical emulsion terpolymerizations of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), styrene (Sty), and butyl acrylate (BA) were performed at 80 °C. Terpolymers were characterized for composition, conversion, molecular weight and glass transition temperature, latexes were characterized for viscosity and particle size while adhesives were characterized for tack, peel strength, shear strength, storage modulus, loss modulus and tan delta. One impurity commonly found in CLA, oleic acid, was shown to influence the reaction kinetics significantly. Adhesive performance was tuned using divinylbenzene (DVB) crosslinker to keep the terpolymer molecular weight in a desired range. By using a constrained mixture design, the influence of terpolymer composition, chain transfer agent (CTA) concentration, DVB concentration, molecular weights, viscosity and particle size on tack, peel strength and shear strength was investigated. The final forms of the resulting empirical models allowed the creation of 3D response surfaces for pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) performance optimization.