in: Polymer science: research advances, practical applications and educational aspects, A. Méndez-Vilas ;,A. Solano, Editor, FORMATEX , Badajoz, pp.537-543, 2016
Poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) and vinyl acetate-acrylic copolymer latices are very important in industrial
applications such as adhesives, paint, binders for nonwovens, paper and textile additive industries, and many
related industries. Their production is growing steadily in both actual quantities and different applications.
PVAc emulsion is environmentally friendly and exhibits superior prospects due to its waterborne nature,
having lower volatile organic compounds and better film-forming property. Nevertheless, its inherent
shortcomings, such as poor heat-, water- and creep-resistances, make its applications limited in specific fields.
In order to improve the drawbacks of PVAc emulsion, great effort has been made through various
experimental techniques and modified approaches. Among them, it is considered that core-shell (CS)
manufacturing technique is a promising approach to improve disadvantages of PVAc-based emulsion. The
fundamental concept to obtain desirable performances through PVAc-based core-shell (PVAc-CS) emulsion
could be materialized by introducing various components into the core or/and shell, thus utilizing composite
effect of CS structure to meet the requirements under the precondition of keeping single-component PVAcbased
emulsion [1-4].
A systemic and comprehensive study with regard to formation, morphology and application can play a
significant role in better understanding and facilitating the development of PVAc-CS emulsion both in theory
and practice. Therefore, in this chapter, we summarized the synthesizing and characterization of PVAc
latexes. Additionally, formation and morphological control mechanism, the factors affecting the formation, as
well as the properties and applications of PVAc-CS emulsion were discussed with the fundamental aspects,
especially in practical and end use applications.