Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Polymer Colloids, Strasbourg, France, July 3-15, 1988

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Polymer Colloids, Strasbourg, France, July 3-15, 1988

The growth of interest in the subject of Polymer Colloids over the last twenty five years or so has been very large resulting now in major international conferences on an annual basis and many national ones as well. The interest stems not only from the wide range of applications of these materials but also from a curiosity as to the mechanism of formation and their growing use as model particles to investigate fundamental aspects of physics and chemistry. In July 1988 a NATO Advanced Study Institute was held in Strasbourg, France, at the Centre St. Thomas. As an educational introduction to this I nstitute a series of eight lectures was given to cover the fundamental aspects of the subject. These eight lectures have now been compiled into an Introductory Text covering, emulsion poly merization, dispersion polymerization, inverse emulsion polymerization, the morphology of copolymer latices, the colloidal properties of latices, characterization methods and rheology. It is hoped that these will serve a wide audience, undergraduates, graduate-students and research workers, both in industry and academe. The chapters all contain review material up to date at the time of publication. fhe 1988 NATO Advanced Study I nstitute was made possible by a grant from the NATO-AS I programme and the following companies: BASF, Ludwigshafen, West Germany The Dow Chemical Company, Michigan, USA Dow Chemical Rheinwerk GmbH, Rheinmunster, West Germany ICI PLC, Runcorn, England S. C. Johnson and Son Inc., Racine, USA NORSOLOR, Verneuil en Halatte, France Rhone Poulenc, Aubervilliers, France.

Science and Technology of Polymer Colloids G. W. Poehlein, R. H. Ottewill, J. W. Goodwin (editors) Polymer colloids, more commonly known as latexes, are important in the manufacture of synthetic elastomers, commodity polymers, surface coatings, adhesive and numerous specialty products. The significant growth of the commercial production of polymer latexes during the past decade has been due to a number of factors. First, water-based systems, especially paints and coatings, avoid many of the environ mental problems associated with the solvent-based systems. Second, polymer colloid products can be custom designed to meet a wide range of application requirements. Third, large scale emulsion polymeri zation proceeds smoothly and controllably with a wide range of monomers to produce stable polymer colloids of high molecular weight Polymer colloids are also important in functional scientific studies This importance arises from the spherical shape of the particles, range of attainable particle diameters and the uniformity of their size distribution, and the possibility of controlling and character izing the particle surface. Polymer colloids are useful as size standards in microscopy and in instrument calibration, and as carriers in antibody-enzyme diagnosti, tests. As suspensions of uniform spherical particles, they are idea. experimental systems to test the series of colloidal phenomena as stability and coagulation, electric kinetic or rheological proper ties, and light scattering. In recent years, polymer colloids have received attention as models for many-body molecular phenomena, including the order-disorder transitions and the mechanics of crystalline phases."

Science and Technology of Polymer Colloids G.W. Poehlein, R.H. Ottewill, J.W. Goodwin (editors) Polymer colloids, more commonly known as latexes, are important in the manufacture of synthetic elastomers, commodity polymers, surface coatings, adhesive and numerous specialty products. The significant growth of the commercial production of polymer latexes during the past decade has been due to a number of factors. First, water-based systems, especially paints and coatings, avoid many of the environ mental problems associated with the solvent-based systems. Second, polymer colloid products can be custom designed to meet a wide range of application requirements. Third, large scale emulsion polymeri zation proceeds smoothly and controllably with a wide range of monomers to produce stable polymer colloids of high molecular weight. Polymer colloids are also important in functional scientific studies. This importance arises from the spherical shape of the particles, range of attainable particle diameters and the uniformity of their size distribution, and the possibility of controlling and character izing the particle surface. Polymer colloids are useful as size standards in microscopy and in instrument calibration, and as carriers in antibody-enzyme diagnostic tests. As suspensions of uniform spherical particles, they are ideal experimental systems to test the series of colloidal phenomena as stability and coagulation, electric kinetic or rheological proper ties, and light scattering. In recent years, polymer colloids have received attention as models for many-body molecular phenomena, including the order-disorder transitions and the mechanics of crystalline phases."