Preparation and application of a long-chain water-based polyacrylate stripper on paper

An environmentally benign water-based polyacrylate stripper(WPS), which could be utilized on paper, was prepared to employ natural latex as the main film-forming material that was mixed with an appropriate amount of a long-chain polyacrylate(LCP) emulsion. LCP was synthesized by semi-continuous seed emulsion polymerization using stearyl acrylate (SA) as monomer and choosing SPAN80 and O20 as compound emulsifiers, and it was characterized by IR, 1HNMR, 13CNMR, GPC, TEM and so on. The effects of the dosage to emulsifiers on LCP emulsion and the amount of LCP emulsion on comprehensive performance of WPS were studied. When the mass ratio of SPAN80 to O20 was 1:1 and hydrophile–lipophile balance (HLB) values of the two emulsifiers was 10.4, respectively, the emulsifying effect was the best, and the average particle size of the emulsion was 85.6 nm. WPS, which was prepared by adding 12% LCP emulsion to natural latex possessed the following properties: average tensile strength was 4.225 MPa, average elongation at break was 940.12%, pencil hardness reached to H, water absorption was 11.32%, surface tension was 37.2 mN/m, and 180° peel strength was 0.32 kN/m, which reduced 20.34% and 30.43% respectively compared to LCP emulsion was 0. Furthermore, the WPS film could be easily peeled off the surface of paper without any damage to the fibers of papers.