Preparation and properties of quaternary phosphonium salt containing poly-acrylate emulsion

In this study, methacryloxyhexyl triphenylphosphonium bromide (Br-MHP), a quaternary phosphonium salt monomer, was synthesized and then poly-acrylate emulsion with various Br-MHP contents was prepared through seed emulsion polymerization. The chemical structure of Br-MHP and chemical composition of Br-MHP containing poly-acrylate emulsion were characterized by 1H NMR, 13C NMR, LC-MS and FT-IR, respectively. Effects of Br-MHP content on the stability of emulsion polymerization and micro-structure of the latex particles were investigated. The micro-morphology of the polymer film was observed by SEM. The film performances such as hardness, adhesive, water absorption ratio, thermal stability and antibacterial property were studied. The surface element composition of Br-MHP containing poly-acrylate film was characterized by XPS. The results show that Br-MHP monomer and poly-acrylate emulsion with various Br-MHP contents can be successfully prepared. With the increase of Br-MHP content, the emulsion polymerization stability increases while particle size of latex particles decreases. Besides, the prepared emulsions show excellent storage stability and mechanical stability. The prepared Br-MHP containing poly-acrylate films also present excellent film properties. As the content of Br-MHP increases, the water absorption ratio of the co-polymer film increases, while hardness and thermal stability decreases. Moreover, XPS result show that the quaternary phosphonium salt group is enrich on the polymer film surface, therefore, the Br-MHP containing poly-acrylate resin presents 99.99 % antibacterial efficiency against S. aureus and E. coli when Br-MHP content is only 1 wt% and 2 wt%, respectively.