Viscoelastic behaviour of butyl acrylate/styrene/2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate/acrylic acid latices thickened with associative thickeners

• Published in: Comptes rendus. Chimie Vol. 6; no. 11-12; pp. 1411 - 1416
• Main Authors: Quadrat, Otakar, Mikešová, Jana, Horský, Jiří, Šňupárek, Jaromír
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; French
• Published: 01.11.2003
• ISSN: 1878-1543; 1631-0748; 1878-1543
• DOI: 10.1016/j.crci.2003.09.004

The rheological behaviour of butyl acrylate/styrene/acrylic acid latices thickened with a hydrophobically modified ethoxylated polyurethane (HEUR) or hydrophobically modified alkali-soluble polyacrylate emulsion (HASE) was investigated. While the pseudoplastic character of frequency dependence of complex viscosity was similar for both thickeners, viscoelastic behaviour, expressed as the ratio of loss and storage moduli, significantly differed, indicating that the HEUR molecules, unlike swollen HASE particles, create a viscoelastic space structure. The increase in hydrophilicity of the particle surface, achieved by incorporation of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) monomer into the latex copolymer reduced the viscoelasticity of latices thickened with HEUR, but not of those thickened with HASE. This confirms that adsorption of hydrophobic end-groups on particle surface is important for thickening of latices with HEUR and that a physical network of latex particles interconnected by the thickener macromolecules is formed.