University of Groningen

Thin transparent conducting films based on core-shell latexes

Huijs, Franciscus Maria

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 Latex film formation at room temperature

5 Latex film formation at room temperature

In the chapters 3 and 4 it has been shown that transparent films can be
formed from PBMA latexes encapsulated with a polypyrrole shell. The rate
of film formation strongly depends on the thickness of the polypyrrole shell
and on the temperature at which the film is formed. Since film formation at
high temperatures has a number of disadvantages, such as loss of
conductivity and limitation of substrate composition and size, the possibility
to form transparent films from a 1 wt% PPy-encapsulated PBMA latex at
room temperature has been investigated in this chapter.
Three different routes to form such films have been investigated. It has been
found that it is possible to obtain transparent films from blends of
encapsulated latexes and film-forming latexes, but the quality of the films is
rather low. The homogeneity of the films is not very good, resulting in
“sandy-like” structures in the films. This is attributed to colloidal instability
of the latex.
A second method to form films at room temperature is by using low-Tg
acrylic latex particles or PBMA latex particles with a low-Tg shell as the
core particles. Depending on the Tg of the polymer and the thickness of the
acrylic shell it is possible to form films based on these latexes, but these
films proved to be electrically insulating or inhomogeneous.
A third method is to employ so-called coalescing aids. It has been found that
it is indeed possible to obtain homogeneous transparent films from 1 wt%
PPy-encapsulated PBMA latexes with a proper choice of the coalescing aid.
The best results were obtained with Dowanol EPH, which is an ethylene
glycol phenyl ether. Films formed with this coalescing aid can have a
transparency of well over 90%. The film transparency is found to depend on
the concentration of coalescing aid, the film thickness, and on the relative
humidity at which the film is formed.
Chapter 5

5.1 Introduction

In the previous chapters it has been shown that conducting latex particles
with an acrylic core and an ICP shell can be prepared and that transparent
films can be obtained from such encapsulated latexes by heating. It was
shown that the ICP shell forms a strong barrier against film formation and
high temperatures and/or long annealing times are necessary to obtain
transparent and mechanically strong films. Such a heat treatment has a
number of disadvantages. It limits the practical applicability of the
conducting film, because severe prerequisites are set for the substrate on
which the coating is applied. The size and shape of the sample on which the
film is applied are limited because it has to be heated in an oven. Finally, it
is well known that ICPs often suffer from loss of conductivity with time,
especially at elevated temperatures [1]. Although polypyrrole is one of the
most stable ICPs with respect to its conductivity, it is advisable to prevent
elevated temperatures as much as possible.

One can think of several approaches to forming transparent films from

encapsulated latex particles without the necessity of a heat treatment. First,
it is possible to blend a film-forming latex with the encapsulated latex. Upon
evaporation of the water, the film-forming latex can deform and fill the
voids between the encapsulated latex particles, thus providing a matrix that
gives the film mechanical strength and prevents the scattering of light by
voids. Second, one can use a core latex from an acrylic polymer with a
lower Tg than PBMA or use a composite particle with a PBMA core and a
low Tg shell in the in-situ polymerization of the ICP. Upon evaporation of
the water, the acrylic core latex will have a lower resistance against
deformation and can deform resulting in a transparent and mechanically
rigid film. A third method to obtain film formation of the encapsulated
latexes at room temperature is to employ so-called coalescing aids or
coalescents. These are low molecular weight liquid compounds that are
added to the aqueous latex and temporarily lower the Tg of the latex
polymer. After film formation of the latex, the coalescing aid evaporates and
the latex polymer regains its original glass transition temperature.
All three methods have been investigated for their usefulness in the
preparation of transparent films based on PPy-encapsulated latexes.
 Latex film formation at room temperature

5.2 Film formation of blends with low-T g latexes

In recent years more and more research effort is directed to the combination
of different polymers in order to prepare materials which combine the
desirable properties of the individual components and have a good overall
performance. One of these areas is the preparation of polymeric films from
blends of latexes [2, 3]. It has been shown that when a film-forming latex is
blended with a non-film-forming latex, a transparent film is formed if the
non-film-forming particles are uniformly distributed in the polymer matrix
generated from the deformed soft particles. However, if the hard latex
particles form clusters, the resulting film is turbid [2]. Various factors, such
as the size ratio between the two types of particles, the presence of
surfactants, and annealing of the films after drying, influence the uniformity
of the particle packing that is required for transparent films. If the size of the
latex particles is comparable, transparent films are formed if the soft particle
volume fraction exceeds ~0.5 [4]. At lower volume fractions voids are still
present in the film. These voids can scatter light and reduce the film
transparency. Which of the two polymers in the latex blend forms the
continuous matrix does not only depend on the volume ratio between both
latexes, but also on the ratio of their particle sizes [5]. When the differences
in particle size are significant (dhard/dsoft = 4–10) a continuous matrix of the
soft particles can be formed with only 30 vol% of the soft particles if the
packing of the particles is good [5, 6, 7].
To the best of our knowledge, there is only one report of the preparation of
latex blend films with ICPs. Cooper et al. [8] have prepared blends of a
PMMA/PBA latex with preformed PANI and PPy particles. The diameter of
the acrylic latex was about 160 nm and the polypyrrole particles were rather
polydisperse with most particle diameters in the range 100–150 nm. From
these water-based systems, films could be prepared with a conductivity of
about 10-2 S/cm with only about 5 wt% PANI or about 20 wt% PPy. The
difference in the percolation threshold is attributed to the difference in shape
of the ICP particles; the PANI particles are needle-shaped and the PPy
particles have a more globular appearance. Cooper et al. reported that the
films essentially retain the mechanically properties of PMMA/PBA films up
to ICP particle concentrations of ~20 wt%. At higher concentrations the
films become brittle and easily torn [Error! Bookmark not defined.].
When we tried to prepare blend films based upon ICP-encapsulated latexes
and film-forming latexes, various difficulties were encountered. The main
problem is the colloidal stability of both latexes in the mixture and therefore
Chapter 5

the uniformity of the distribution of the particles in the film. Especially if

small, low-Tg particles are employed, the colloidal stability is usually low.
This might be due to the large increase in latex surface area available to the
stabilizer molecule. This can result in desorption of stabilizer molecules
from the encapsulated latex particles and thus in destabilization. The use of
small, low-Tg particles is advantageous over using larger particles because it
reduces the size of the voids between the latex particles in the film upon
evaporation of the water. This reduces the minimum film formation
temperature and thus the temperature at which transparent films are formed
[9]. The stability can be improved by the addition of extra stabilizers like
SDS, but this has the disadvantages that it may decrease the final film
transparency and that the hydrophilicity of the film will be increased.
We have been able to prepare transparent and conducting films from blends
of encapsulated latexes with low-Tg latexes. However, none of these films
was homogeneous, resulting in “sandy-like” structures in all latex films.
This limits the transparency and the mechanical strength of the film.
Therefore, other methods to obtain homogeneous films have been
developed.

5.3 Film formation of encapsulated latexes with a low-T g inner

shell

A second approach to obtaining film formation at room temperature is the

use of core latex particles with a lower Tg than PBMA. Such particles can
either be homogeneous, i.e. have the same composition throughout the
particle, or have a core–shell structure in which the low-Tg polymer is
situated at the outside of the PBMA latex. In this study such core–shell
latexes have been used. A schematic presentation of the film formation of
such a latex after encapsulation with polypyrrole is given in Figure 5.1.
 Latex film formation at room temperature

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3

Figure 5.1 Schematic presentation of the film formation process of an

encapsulated latex with a low-Tg inner shell.

In the third stage of the film formation process, the PBMA core keeps its
spherical structure. If the thickness of the low-Tg shell is high enough and
the Tg of this polymer is low enough, the soft acrylic shell will deform and
fill the voids between the latex particles. In our case the shell thickness and
the Tg of the soft acrylic shell are even more important, since the
encapsulation by polypyrrole gives an extra resistance against particle
deformation, as can be seen in the atomic force microscopy images shown
in Figure 5.2.

Figure 5.2 AFM images of samples dried at room temperature of the

PBMA core latex (left), the PBMA core latex with a 50 nm shell of a
PBMA-PBA copolymer with a Tg of –15 °C (middle), and of the same latex
but after encapsulation with 1 wt% PPy (right). The size of all three images
is 5 × 5 µm.

The images in Figure 5.2 were taken on thick latex films that were dried at
room temperature. In the left-hand figure, the particles are stacked nicely in
Chapter 5

a lattice and the boundaries between the individual particles are clearly
visible. This is as expected, since the particles were dried at room
temperature, so below the Tg of the latex polymer. In the picture in the
middle, the size of the spherical particles is the same as in the left-hand
figure, but they appear separated. This is due to the film formation of the
low-Tg shell polymer that was polymerized around the PBMA core particles.
The appearance of this sample is transparent, whereas the dried PBMA latex
is white due to the scattering of light by the voids in the sample.
Polymerization of a polypyrrole shell of about 1 nm around the latex
particles with the low-Tg shell hinders the film formation of the particles, as
can be seen in the right-hand figure. Here the boundaries are clearly visible
again. Since these samples are rather thick, the appearance of the PPy-
encapsulated film was very dark. That film formation had indeed occurred
in this case could be concluded from the mechanical strength of the film.

In general, core–shell particles with a low-Tg shell are used in order to get a
desired combination of properties, i.e. a good combination of the rate of film
formation and the hardness of the resulting film. In this study, such core–
shell particles are used since it offers the possibility to use the same PBMA
core latex and polymerize low-Tg shells with different properties
(composition and nature of the monomer) around this core latex. This
enables the comparison of the influence of the different shells independent
of factors like the exact size and composition of the core latex.
It was found that transparent latex films can be formed from PPy-
encapsulated latex particles with a low-Tg inner shell and a diameter of
about 800 nm if the Tg of the shell-polymer is below –15 °C and the
thickness of the shell is at least 50 nm. The colloidal stability of these
latexes, however, is found to be worse than that of encapsulated latexes with
a pure PBMA core. The reason for this lower colloidal stability is not
understood. A possible explanation could be a lower binding efficiency
between the HEC thickener and the acrylic latex during the in-situ
polymerization of the pyrrole, but the reason for such a lower binding
energy is not clear. The lower colloidal stability of the latex, however, has a
negative influence on the quality of the films. Via incorporation of acrylic
acid groups in the shell it is possible to prepare latexes that are colloidally
stable even during the in-situ polymerization of pyrrole. However, as has
already been said in chapter 2, such latexes proved to be non-conducting
and were therefore not used further in this study. Since films with much
better optical properties could be obtained at room temperature using other
methods, the colloidal stabilization of PPy-encapsulated latexes with a low-
 Latex film formation at room temperature

Tg inner shell has not been investigated in more detail. However, since this
method has proven to be applicable and since it really enables the formation
of transparent films at room temperature without extra additives, it deserves
further investigation.

5.4 Film formation of encapsulated latexes with coalescing

aids

In commercial latexes usually small amounts of volatile organic solvents are

present. These organics are called coalescing aids, coalescents or filming
aids and they facilitate the deformation of the latex particles and the chain
interdiffusion between different latex particles upon evaporation of the
aqueous phase. After the film has been applied, the coalescing aid
evaporates from the film, thus restoring the original latex polymer
properties.
The mode of action of coalescing aids in latexes is rather complicated. From
experiments with bulk polymers it is known that a coalescing aid can lower
the Tg of the polymer [10]. Since the elastic modulus of a polymer decreases
by several orders of magnitude as the temperature is raised above its Tg , a
coalescing aid promotes the ease of particle deformation [11] and chain
interpenetration [12]. In an aqueous latex the situation is more complicated
since also other factors like the partitioning of the coalescing aid between
the water phase and the polymer phase play a role. This partitioning
influences the concentration of coalescing aid in the polymer phase and in
the water phase. The presence of coalescing aids in the water phase may
retard the evaporation of water in the very last stage of the drying of the
latex by reducing the partial pressure of water [13]. Since evaporation of
water is an endothermic process, this will increase the temperature of the
latex during coalescence [14] and it results in a decrease of the air void
formation in the film [11].
There are many different coalescing aids commercially available, all with
their specific affinity for different polymers, water solubility and
evaporation rate. In this project six different coalescing aids that are often
employed with acrylic latexes are investigated for their influence on the film
formation of PBMA latex particles encapsulated with 1 wt% PPy. The main
properties of the coalescing aids are given in Table 5.1.
Chapter 5

Table 5.1 Main properties of the coalescing aids [15].

Trade name Chemical name Evaporation rate1 Solubility in water

(wt%, 20°C)
Dowanol EB Ethylene glycol 0.06 8
n-butyl ether
Dowanol DPM Dipropylene glycol 0.035 8
methyl ether
Dowanol PnB Propylene glycol 0.093 5.5
n-butyl ether
Texanol 2,2,4-trimethyl 0.002 insoluble
1,3-pentanediol
monoisobutyrate
Vestinol AH Dioctyl phthalate insoluble
Dowanol EPH Ethylene glycol 0.001 2.5
phenyl ether
1
The evaporation rates are compared to n-butyl acetate = 1

It was observed that the wetting of the glass slide by the different latexes is
very different, ranging from very good for the sample with Dowanol EPH to
rather poor for the sample with Dowanol EB and Dowanol DPM. A poor
wetting results in inhomogeneous drying of the film and thus in an
inhomogeneous film. In the paint industry, such drying effects are often
solved by a modification of the paint viscosity via rheology modifiers or
thickeners. A second mode of action of such a thickener is that it can change
the properties of the aqueous phase and make it better wetting the substrate.
Therefore, latex films have been prepared with a hydrophobic polyurethane
thickener that is often used in latex systems, SER AD FX 1100. The amount
of thickener used is about 5 wt% relative to the total (wet) latex. The
amount of coalescing aid relative to the solid latex polymer is 20 wt%. The
thickness of the wet films is approximately 15 µm. The final transparencies
of the thus prepared latex films are plotted in Figure 5.3.
 Latex film formation at room temperature

100

80
Transparency (%)
60

40

20

0
Dowanol EB

Dowanol DPM

Dowanol PnB

Texanol

Vestinol AH

Dowanol EPH
Figure 5.3 Transparencies of films prepared with different coalescing
aids from a 1 wt% PPy-encapsulated PBMA latex at room temperature with
5 wt% SER AD FX 1100; Relative Humidity (RH) = 94%; wet film
thickness = 15 µm; [coalescing aid] = 20 wt%; solid content = 14.6%.

As can be seen from Figure 5.3, large differences in film transparency are
found with the different coalescing aids and, more important, it is possible
to obtain transparent films from the encapsulated latexes at room
temperature. In Chapter 6 is shown that these transparent films can possess a
resistance of less than 100 kO/?, so it is possible to prepare transparent,
antistatic films at room temperature.
The performance of Dowanol EPH as a coalescing aid is superior in
comparison with the other coalescing aids. As has been said in the
beginning of this paragraph, the mode of action of coalescing aids is very
complicated and therefore it is not possible to relate the coalescing strength
directly to a certain property. In this case, however, a possible explanation
for the superior performance of Dowanol EPH could be its chemical
structure in combination with its partition in the water phase and the latex
particle. As has been shown in the previous chapters, the polypyrrole shell
forms the main resistance against deformation of the encapsulated latex
particles. One of the characteristics of polypyrrole is its conjugated ring-
structure; a structure that is also present in the two coalescing aids that give
Chapter 5

the best results, Dowanol EPH and Vestinol AH. Therefore, some affinity
between the polypyrrole and these coalescing aids can be expected. The
difference in performance of Vestinol AH and Dowanol EPH is possibly
due to the difference of the partition of the coalescing aid inside the latex
particles. The water solubility of Dowanol EPH is much larger than that of
Vestinol AH. Upon evaporation of the water, the coalescing aid that was
present in the water phase will be forced into the latex particles, because its
evaporation rate is lower than that of water. Therefore it can be expected
that immediately after the evaporation of the water, in the case of Dowanol
EPH more coalescing aid will be present at the outside of the particle than in
the case of Vestinol AH. The main resistance against deformation, the
polypyrrole shell, is located only at the surface of the latex particle. Since
more Dowanol EPH will be located near this shell, this might be an
explanation for the better performance of this coalescing aid.
Since the samples with Dowanol EPH as the coalescing aid give the best
results, this coalescent is selected for further experiments.

The viscosity of the aqueous latexes can be adjusted not only by the addition
of thickeners, but also by the concentration of the latex in the water.
Therefore, part of the water phase is evaporated prior to the addition of the
coalescing aid, until the solid content of the latex is about 28 %. Such a
solid content proved to be high enough for the preparation of homogeneous
films from the 1 wt% PPy-encapsulated latexes with Dowanol EPH as the
coalescing aid. The concentration process does not have a negative
influence on the colloidal stability of the latex, neither immediately, nor in
the long term. This concentrated encapsulated latex, without any additional
thickener, is used for further experiments.

So far, the concentration of the coalescing aids has been kept constant at
20 wt% relative to the solid polymer. Since coalescing aids are organic
liquids, they evaporate from the film. The use of so-called volatile organic
compounds in paints is reduced as much as possible since such compounds
are suspected of causing the Organic Psycho Syndrome (OPS) and the
greenhouse effect. Therefore, the influence of the concentration of Dowanol
EPH on the final film transparency is investigated.
 Latex film formation at room temperature

100

Transparency (%) 80

60

40

20

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
wt% Dowanol EPH

Figure 5.4 Transparencies of films prepared with different

concentrations of Dowanol EPH from a 1 wt% PPy-encapsulated PBMA
latex at room temperature; RH = 94%; wet film thickness = 15 µm; solid
content = 28.4%.

A relation between the concentration of Dowanol EPH and the film

transparency is found, as can be seen in Figure 5.4. The final film
transparency increases from about 75% for the sample with 10 wt%
coalescent, to well over 80% for the sample with 20 wt% Dowanol EPH.
Without any coalescing aid, the transparency of such a film is only about
30%. Since there is only a very small increase in film transparency upon
increasing the coalescent concentration from 15 wt% to 20 wt%, it is clear
that a concentration of 20 wt% Dowanol EPH is near the optimum for this
latex [11].
The fact that the final transparency of the film that is prepared with 20 wt%
coalescent is clearly lower in Figure 5.4 than it was in Figure 5.3 can have
two origins. First, because the latex that was used for Figure 5.4 was more
concentrated and the wet film thickness was kept constant, the thickness of
that film will be larger. Of course, this will increase the amount of absorbed
and scattered light, even if the number and size of voids per unit film
volume remains unchanged. Second, since the amount of water is lower in
the concentrated latex, the film will be dry in a shorter period of time. This
Chapter 5

limits the time that the particles can move in the liquid and may therefore
result in a poorer stacking of the particles in the film and thus in an increase
in number and size of the voids.

The influence of the rate of water evaporation on the film transparency was
investigated by forming the film at different relative humidity (RH). At a
higher RH, the driving force for water evaporation is lower, leading to an
increase in the time interval that the particles can move in the water phase.
This decrease in evaporation rate indeed has a positive influence on the film
transparency, as can be seen in Figure 5.5.

100

90
Transparency (%)

80

70

60

50
40 60 80 100
Relative humidity (%)

Figure 5.5 Transparencies of films prepared at different relative

humidities from a 1 wt% PPy-encapsulated PBMA latex with 10 wt%
Dowanol EPH at room temperature; wet film thickness = 15 µm; solid
content = 28.4%.

The transparency of the film clearly depends on the relative humidity at

which the film is formed. A difference in relative humidity results in a
difference in the time that liquid water is present in the film, which ranges
from about 7 minutes for the film at 55% RH to about 50 minutes for the
film dried at 94% RH. The difference in film transparency can have two
origins. First, as has been indicated already, a faster drying limits the time
available for the particles to stack in a perfect lattice. Therefore, more and
 Latex film formation at room temperature

larger voids will be present in the film formed at low RH. Second, water
evaporation is an endothermic process, thus the evaporation of water will
decrease the actual temperature of the latex during coalescence. Hence, the
shear modulus of a latex drying at low RH will be higher than the shear
modulus of the same latex drying at a higher RH. The deformation is
facilitated in the latter case, resulting in a film with smaller voids and thus a
higher transparency [14].

5.5 Conclusions

Three different methods to form transparent films from acrylic latex

particles encapsulated with 1 wt% PPy at room temperature have been
investigated. It has been found that it is possible to obtain transparent films
from acrylic latexes with a low-Tg inner shell and from blends of a PPy-
encapsulated latex with a film-forming latex. However, the optical quality of
such films is rather low. This has been attributed to colloidal instability of
the latex, which causes inhomogeneity in the film and therefore limits the
film transparency. Much better results were obtained with films formed with
coalescing aids. It has been shown that it is possible to form >90%
transparent films with the proper combination of type of coalescent,
concentration of coalescent, and drying conditions.

The best results have been obtained with Dowanol EPH, which is an
ethylene glycol phenyl ether. The superior coalescing power of this
coalescing aid might be attributed to the presence of a conjugated ring in its
structure in combination with an intermediate partitioning between the water
and polymer phase. It has been shown that another coalescent, with a
conjugated ring but with a much lower water solubility, is only slightly less
effective, while other coalescents, without the conjugated ring, are much
less effective.

The transparency of a film that is formed with Dowanol EPH depends on

many different variables, such as the concentration of the coalescing aid, the
thickness of the film, and the relative humidity at which the film is formed.
It has been found that a concentration of about 20 wt% Dowanol EPH
relative to the solid latex content is the optimum for a 800 nm diameter
PBMA latex encapsulated with 1 wt% PPy at a solid content of
approximately 28.4%. At a lower RH, the evaporation of the water phase is
faster. This reduces the time that the latex particles can move freely through
Chapter 5

the film in order to get the optimum lattice-like particle stacking and it also
reduces the actual temperature of the film. This results in an increase of the
size of the voids in the film and thus in a reduction of the film transparency.

5.6 Experimental

Latex synthesis
The core PBMA latex was synthesized in an emulsifier-free batch synthesis
according to the procedure described in chapter 3. The diameter of the latex
that was used throughout this chapter was determined using a Brookhaven
Instruments BI-DCP Particle Size Analyzer. The diameter of the particles
was about 800 nm unless indicated otherwise.
Two different routes have been employed for the formation of the latex
particles with a low-Tg inner shell. In the first method, first a PBMA latex is
synthesized according to the emulsifier-free batch method and this latex is
subsequently dialyzed in order to remove excess initiator and salt. Next,
oxygen is removed from the latex again by bubbling N2 through the mixture
followed by the formation of the low-Tg shell via a semi-continuous
polymerization of the shell polymer. In the second method, the core latex
was polymerized according to the same procedure. The shell, however, was
polymerized directly on this core in a semi-continuous polymerization, so
no intermediate dialysis was performed. In the latter procedure, “living”
radicals can be present on the latex surface and therefore the acrylic shell
chains may be chemically linked to the core. An advantage of the first
method, however, is a better control of the monomer-to-oxidant ratio in the
shell polymerization. Furthermore, if one wants to compare the influence of
different shell compositions, it is possible to start with exactly the same core
latex thus ruling out the influence of this core on differences in, for
example, film formation. No relation between the mode of synthesis of these
latexes and their film formation behavior after encapsulation has been
observed.
Low-Tg latex particles that were used in blends were synthesized according
to the same procedure as the PBMA core particles. The size of the latex
particles was controlled by the monomer-to-oxidant ratio.
The polypyrrole encapsulation protocol has been kept constant throughout
the experiments described in this chapter. This protocol has been given in
chapter 3.
 Latex film formation at room temperature

Film transparency measurements

A film-drying chamber was used in which a latex dispersion can be dried in
well-defined conditions. Dr. J. Laven and M. Visscher of the Technical
University of Eindhoven have developed this film-drying chamber and
kindly placed it at the disposal for these experiments.
In order to measure the film transparency, a sample of the aqueous latex is
applied on a glass slide using a floating knife and inserted in a double-
walled glass chamber. Temperature-controlled water is circulated through
the wall, keeping the temperature inside the chamber at 23 ± 1 °C. With the
aid of electrolyte solutions the relative humidity in the chamber is
controlled. A saturated MgNO3 solution results in a relative humidity of
55%, KBr is used for the experiments at 69%, and experiments at 94% RH
were done in the presence of pure liquid water. The progress of film
formation is monitored optically using a low-energy laser (633 nm) and a
photodiode. First the correction factor C is determined as the photodiode
signal measured when a non-coated glass slide is placed between the laser
and the photodiode. The transparency of the latex film is determined using
the same geometry but with the glass slide coated with the latex according
to the procedure described above. The transparency of the film is calculated
from the photodiode signal using the correction factor. Transparency values
reported in this chapter are the film transparencies 200 minutes after
application of the film. These are all dry-film transparencies, liquid water
having evaporated from all films in less than 60 minutes.

Laser light

Water out
Sample

RH control

Water in
Photodiode
signal
to computer
Figure 5.6 The film-drying chamber and the optical detection system.
Chapter 5

Additives
The coalescing aids Dowanol EB, Dowanol DPM, Dowanol PnB, and
Dowanol EPH were kindly donated by Dow. Texanol was kindly donated
by Eastman Chemical Company, and Vestinol AH was kindly donated by
Hüls AG. All coalescing aids were used as received. The latexes with
coalescent were allowed to stabilize and reach equilibrium by stirring them
gently for at least one week.
The thickener SER AD FX 1100 was kindly donated by Servo Chemicals.
The thickener was used as received and added to the latex as a 3.85 wt%
solution in water. The latexes with thickener were allowed to stabilize and
reach equilibrium by stirring them gently overnight.

5.7 References

1 See for instance Thiéblemont, J.C.; Planche, M.F.; Petrescu, C.;

Bouvier, J.M.; Bidan, G.; Synth. Met., 59 (1993) 81
2 Feng J., Winnik M.A., Shrivers R.R., Clubb B., Macromolecules, 28
(1995) 7671
3 Keddie J.L., Meredith P., Jones R.A.L., Donald A.M., Langmuir, 12
(1996) 3793
4 Patel A.A., Feng J., Winnik M.A., Vancso G.J., Dittman McBain C.B.,
Polymer, 37 (1996) 5577
5 Eckersley S.T., Helmer B.J., J. Coat. Technol., 69 No. 864 (1997) 97
6 Geurts J.M., Lammers M., German A.L., Colloid Surf. A: Eng. Aspects,
108 (1996) 295
7 Peters A.C.I.A., Overbeek G.C., Buckmann A.J.P., Padget J.C.,
Annable T., Progr. Org. Coat., 29 (1996) 183
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 Latex film formation at room temperature

15 The physical properties of the coalescing aids are taken from the
suppliers materials data sheets
Chapter 5