Acrylic/casein latexes with controlled degree of grafting and improved coating performance

Abstract

The production of acrylic/casein nanocomposites constitutes a promising alternative for developing new materials from renewable resources and with an important substitution of petroleum based monomers. Unfortunately, a low degree of grafting between both components limits their successful application in many fields. This proposal opens the opportunity for synthesizing polymer/casein nanocomposites with controlled degree of grafting by using, in the emulsifier-free emulsion polymerization of acrylic monomers, highly-methacrylated casein with varied degree of functionalization. The benefits of this strategy are assessed by analyzing the performance of the obtained hybrid nanocomposites for their application as bio-based waterborne coatings.