Manipulation of chain transfer agent and cross-linker concentration to modify the performance of fluorinated acrylate latex pressure sensitive adhesive

n-Dodecyl mercaptan (DDM) chain transfer agent and 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate (HDDA) cross-linker were used to manipulate latex properties in a monomer-starved seeded semi-continuous emulsion polymerization of butyl acrylate (BA), fluorine monomer dodecafluoroheptyl methacrylate (DFMA) together with acrylic acid (AA) and 2-hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA). The influences of both DDM and HDDA on the particle size of the latex, as well as on the gel content, thermostability (differential scanning calorimeter and thermal gravimetric analysis), surface properties (X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), contact angle analysis and atomic force microscopy), and viscoelasticity (N,N-dimethylacrylamide) of the polymer films were investigated. The results showed that the introduction of DDM and HDDA has no significant effects on the final particle size of the fluorinated pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSA) latexes. XPS analysis indicated that the fluoroalkyl groups had the tendency to enrich on the surface of the film. However, this enrichment of fluorine on the film surface was reduced after the introduction of HDDA, while increased with the addition of DDM. It was also found that the gel content, glass transition temperature (Tg), thermal stability, surface roughness, and modulus (G′, Gʺ) of the fluorinated latex PSA were all increased with the introduction of HDDA. Nevertheless, opposite trends were observed for the latex after the addition of DDM. Finally, the effects of DDM and HDDA on the adhesive properties (i.e. loop tack, peel strength and shear strength) of the fluorinated latex PSA were also evaluated.