90 years of polymer latexes and heterophase polymerization: More vital than ever

An attempt is made to give an overview on the historical and possible future development of heterophase polymerization techniques in liquid continuous media to prepare polymer dispersions. Polymer latexes play an essential role in our daily life as they are present visibly or hidden in a variety of products such as cosmetics, detergents, newspapers, or paints and lacquers. More than 10 million tons of polymers are produced by heterophase polymerization techniques worldwide yearly. The majority of heterophase polymerizations is carried out in water as continuous phase and hence, they are belong to green chemistry with increasing importance due to environmental reasons. The compartmentalization of the reaction volume into domains of colloidal size (between a few nm(3) and mum(3)) is the characteristic feature and relates both to the problems and the potential promises of this class of polymers. Special emphasis is placed with regard to the development of new heterophase polymerization techniques, the adoption of new polymerization mechanism to the particular conditions of heterophase polymerization, the synthesis of block copolymers and nanoparticulate hybride structures, the development of new stabilizers and polymerization aids, and the usage of speciality latexes as model systems to learn more about complex matter.