Crosslinking of isocyanate functional acrylic latex with telechelic polybutadiene. I. Synthesis and characterization

An ambient curable isocyanate functional acrylic latex was synthesized by incorporating dimethyl meta-isopropenyl benzyl isocyanate (TMI®), an isocyanate monomer, into styrene/n-butyl acrylate copolymer. An artificial latex of amino-terminated telechelic polybutadiene was prepared and blended with the acrylic latex as a curing agent. The isocyanate content in the blended latex was determined by titration and FTIR measurements. The latex blend properties, in terms of particle size and latex viscosity, and the latex film properties, in terms of stress-strain behavior and solvent swelling behavior, showed no significant change after 30 days' storage of the latex blend at 50°C. The good storage stability was attributed to the stable nature of the latex blend in which there was little chance for the isocyanate-containing particles to come into contact with the curing agent particles, thus preventing premature contact of the acrylic chains with the telechelic chains. The reactivity of different functional groups in the telechelic polymer was studied; the amino group was found to be the most reactive toward the TMI. In addition, a shorter chain telechelic crosslinker was found to result in a higher degree of crosslinking, but this was more intraparticle than interparticle in nature.