Preparation and properties of negatively charged styrene acrylic latex particles cross-linked with divinylbenzene

In this study, the synthesis of divinyl benzene (DVB) cross-linked styrene (Sty)/butyl acrylate (BA)/acrylic acid (AAc) copolymer (SAC) latex particles via the semibatch seeded emulsion polymerization of poly(Sty/BA/AAc) seeds and Sty/BA/AAc or Sty/BA/AAc/DVB monomers was investigated. The structures and morphologies of SAC latex particles were explained by means of DSC, TG/DTG, SEM, 1H-NMR, FTIR, MFFT, and DLS techniques. Optimization studies showed that while the mass ratio of BA in the latex was 68, the glass transition temperature (Tg) value became − 19.8 °C, and when the mass ratio of BA decreased to 30, the Tg value increased to 31.5 °C. The glass transition characteristics of SAC latex were affected by the addition of DVB. The Tg for 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 wt.% DVB/SAC latex particles is 7.5, 8.1, 22.8, 23.4, and 24.5 °C, respectively. The presence of DVB moiety in the SAC latex particles caused the increased thermal stability. The degradation step of the acrylate ester became more dominant with the increasing amount of DVB in the latex. The average particle size and polydispersity index values revealed that the DVB cross-linked SAC latex particles have satisfactory stability and good dispersibility.