Free-radical emulsion copolymerization of styrene with butadiene and vinyl triethoxysilane with a cumene hydroperoxide redox initiator

The emulsion free-radical copolymerization of vinyl triethoxysilane (VTES) with styrene (St) and butadiene (Bd) was initiated by cumene hydroperoxide and ferrous sulfate at 0 °C. The effects of VTES on the copolymerization conversion, reaction time, gel content, latex particle size, thermal stability, and mechanical properties were thoroughly investigated. The success of this reaction was confirmed by the peaks attributed to both Si─O─Si groups at 1065 cm⁻¹ and the Si─O─C bond at 1046 cm⁻¹. A kinetics analysis showed that the conversion decreased with increasing VTES mass in the monomer feed. Compared with that in the St–Bd copolymer, the latex particle size increased slightly with increasing VTES mass. The Mooney viscosity and gel content results show that a large fraction of precrosslinking molecular chains was formed in the rubber particles. The thermogravimetric analysis results indicate that the thermal stability of the copolymers increased with increasing VTES concentration. The 300% modulus and tensile strength of the St–Bd–VTES copolymer increased with the mass of VTES at first and then decreased after 3 phr VTES, whereas the elongation at break decreased with increasing VTES mass.