In order to obtain a suitable formulation of designing direct synthesis of acrylic latexes to be used as emulsion pressure sensitive adhesives (EPSA), having high shear resistance together with high peel strength and tack, free radical emulsion polymerization of hard monomers, such as styrene (St), vinyl acetate monomer (VAM), methyl methacrylate (MMA) and butyl methacrylate (BMA), and soft monomers, butyl acrylate (BA) and 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2-EHA) along with multifunctional monomers, namely acrylic acid (AA), were carried out. The effect of the type of hard and soft acrylic monomers, the type and level of emulsifiers, and the initiator concentration on the emulsion polymer stability and final properties of the EPSA were investigated. The results obtained showed an optimized composition. This composition led to a significant increase in shear strength and peel strength to 909 kPa and 0.45N=mm, respectively, while the synthesized PSA was still too tacky, 5.5 cm, according to adhesion performance testing. For making this successful balance of the conflicting adhesion properties of PSA, a series of anionic and nonionic emulsifiers were investigated. It was interestingly found out that the hybrid emulsifiers (anionic coupling with nonionic) with the optimized compositions could enhance the stability of the emulsion system and improve the properties of PSA compared with the mono-emulsifier. We also tried to adjust the initiator concentration with the level of the optimized hybrid emulsifier, polyoxyethylene alkyl phenyl ether (K30), dioctyl sulfosuccinate (DOSS), and sodium vinyl sulfonate (SVS) with the ratio 2:1:1, resulting in a highly preferred proportion of the 0.5 part of the initiator versus 1.25 parts of the hybrid emulsifier in terms of the total weight of the monomers.

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