AQUEOUS DISPERSIONS OF POLYTETRAFLUOROETHYLENE HAVING A LOW AMOUNT OF FLUORINATED SURFACTANT

摘要

The present invention provides a method of making an aqueous dispersion of non-melt processible polytetrafluoroethylene, the method comprising: (a) an aqueous emulsion polymerization of an amount of tetrafluoroethylene to produce a final amount of polytetrafluoroethylene solids and optionally up to 1% by weight based on the amount of tetrafluoroethylene of a perfluorinated comonomer, wherein said aqueous emulsion polymerization is initiated with a free radical initiator and the polymerization is carried out in the presence of a fluorinated surfactant, and wherein before completing the feeding of said amount of tetrafluoroethylene but after feeding at least 80% by weight of said amount of tetrafluoroethylene, free radicals capable of introducing ionic end groups or precursors thereof in the polytetrafluoroethylene polymer are caused to be formed at a rate that without counter measures would cause an increase in the polymerization rate of at least 20%; (b) reducing the amount of fluorinated surfactant in the thus obtained aqueous dispersion to an amount of not more than 200 ppm, preferably not more than 100ppm and more preferably not more than 50ppm based on the amount of polytetrafluoroethylene solids. The invention further provides an aqueous dispersion of polytetrafluoroethylene particles and the use thereof in coating a substrate.