Styrene-butyl acrylate-acrylic acid latex submonolayers prepared using a non-reactive phosphate surfactant together with a reactive sulfonate surfactant were examined in a transmission microscope using electron energy loss spectroscopy imaging (ESI-TEM). Phosphorus is nearly absent from the particles core but it is detected in a thick shell and in unusual, strongly scattering structures with a low carbon content, and largely made out of inorganic phosphate. P is also dispersed outside the particles, while S is uniformly distributed within then. The Na and N elemental maps show that the respective monovalent ions (Na+ and NH4+) have different distributions, in the latex: Na signal within the particles is stronger than in the background, while N is accumulated at the particle borders. The distributions of surfactant and counter-ions are thus different from some current assumptions, but they support recent results on the distribution of ionic constituents in latex films, by scanning electric potential microscopy.
ESI-TEM; latex film; surfactant migration; polymer surface; elemental maps
