Neutralizing agents for resin emulsions

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9395637-B2
Application number	US-201615002246-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 20, 2016
Priority date	Jun 13, 2013
Publication date	Jul 19, 2016
Grant date	Jul 19, 2016

Abstract

Incorporation of organic amines as neutralization agents in based phase inversion emulsification (PIE) processes to provide emulsification of high molecular amorphous and high molecular branch amorphous polyester resins, which are traditionally difficult to emulsify. The organic amines facilitate emulsification of these resins to achieve desired particle size with a narrow size distribution.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An aqueous emulsion made by a process comprising:
mixing at least one polyester resin comprising a high molecular weight polyester having a number average molecular weight of from about 86,000 and 121,000 with a solvent to form a resin mixture;
neutralizing the resin mixture with a neutralizing agent in water; and
agitating the resin mixture and neutralizing agent in water to form an aqueous emulsion, wherein the neutralizing agent is selected from the group consisting of triethylamine, triethaneolamine, and mixtures thereof, and further wherein the solvent comprises two organic solvents and a ratio of the two organic solvents is from about 5:1 to about 50:1.

2. The aqueous emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the polyester amorphous resin comprises propoxylated-bisphenol-A, ethoxylated-bisphenol-A, and mixtures thereof.

3. The aqueous emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the polyester resin has a low acid value of from about 3 mg KOH/g of resin to about 200 mg KOH/g of resin.

4. The aqueous emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the solvent is selected from the group consisting of alcohols, esters, ethers, ketones, amines, and mixtures thereof.

5. The aqueous emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous emulsion has a particle size in a range produce emulsions with particle size in the desired range of from about 100 to about 250 nm.

6. The aqueous emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous emulsion has a narrow particle size distribution.

7. The aqueous emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the resin mixture comprises a weight ratio of the resin to solvent of about 2:1 to about 1:5.

8. The aqueous emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the neutralization agent is present in the aqueous emulsion in an amount of from about 0.001% to about 50% percent by weight of the total weight of the resin.

9. The aqueous emulsion of claim 1 being an emulsion aggregate toner.

10. The aqueous emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the solvent is selected from the group consisting of methanol, ethanol, propanol, isopropanol (IPA), butanol, ethyl acetate, methyl ethyl ketone.

11. The aqueous emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the solvent mixture comprises ketone and alcohol.

12. The aqueous emulsion of claim 1 , wherein the resin and neutralizing agent has a neutralization ratio of from about 50% to about 300%.

Assignees

• Xerox Corp

Inventors

• Wang Yulin
• Qiu Shigang Steven
• Zhou Ke
• Moffat Karen A
• Zwartz Edward G
• Hawkins Michael S
• Gerroir Paul J

Classifications

• G03G9/0804 Primary

  whereby the components are brought together in a liquid dispersing medium · CPC title

• G03G9/08755

  Polyesters · CPC title

• C08G63/00

  Macromolecular compounds obtained by reactions forming a carboxylic ester link in the main chain of the macromolecule (polyester-amides C08G69/44; polyester-imides C08G73/16) · CPC title

• G03G9/08797

  characterised by their physical properties, e.g. viscosity, solubility, melting temperature, softening temperature, glass transition temperature · CPC title

• G03G9/08795

  characterised by their chemical properties, e.g. acidity, molecular weight, sensitivity to reactants · CPC title