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.
