Patent ID: 8647801

Claim:
A natural oil-based chemically produced toner for developing electrophotographic images, comprising: a latex or an emulsion of free radical-initiated copolymer made of 0.1% to 40% unsaturated macromers and vinyl monomers; wherein the macromers have a molecular weight of 500 to 30000 and are obtained from a polycondensation reaction between a polycarboxylic acid, a natural oil or derivative thereof and a polyol, via a solvent-free fusion cook process, in which an unsaturated dicarboxylic acid, an unsaturated free fatty acid or the combination thereof is incorporated therein to regulate the amount of alkenyl groups of the macromers; a colourant, a charge control agent; wherein the colourant and the charge control agent are mixed into the copolymer emulsion; a flocculating agent added into the mixture to form aggregated particles of predetermined sizes; wherein the aggregated particles are then coalesced into uniform and regular shapes by the raising of the temperature of the mixture above the glass transition temperature of the copolymer, and then solidified by the lowering of the temperature of the mixture; wherein the solidified coalesced particles are separated, washed and dried to form raw toner particles; and a surface additive added into the raw toner particles to form the toner.