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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Extraction and Characterization of Surfactants from Atmospheric Aerosols
Published on: April 21, 2017
Probing the surface of polymer colloids by conductometric surfactant titration
Jeffrey M Stubbs1, Patrice Roose, Patrick De Doncker
1Nanostructured Polymers Research Center, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824, USA. jstubbs@cisunix.unh.edu
Abstract:
This work revisits the use of surfactant titrations for the characterization of latex particle surfaces. Experiments were performed to study the effect of comonomer composition and the effect of acid comonomers, and the technique is applied to the characterization of particle morphology in composite latices for several different systems. It is confirmed that the packing density of surfactant on a polymer surface is a linear function of copolymer composition. Inclusion of acid comonomers has the expected effect of decreasing the amount of surfactant adsorbed on the polymer surfaces. The usefulness of the technique in the determination of particle morphology is demonstrated, in particular toward the detection of thin layers of either seed or second-stage polymer on the particle surface which are not easily detected by other techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Finally, it is shown that the use of acid comonomers in composite particles greatly reduces the usefulness of the surfactant titration technique for morphology characterization. A possible explanation for this effect is proposed.
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