POLYMERIZATION IN MICROEMULSIONS - A NEW APPROACH TO ULTRAFINE, HIGHLY FUNCTIONALIZED POLYMER DISPERSIONS

Polymerization in microemulsions is a new polymerization technique whi ch allows the synthesis of ultrafine latex particles within the size r ange 5 nm < R < 50 nm and with narrow size distribution. This article presents a short review of the current literature in this field. Besid e a short introduction into some kinetic aspects of polymerization in microemulsions, we mainly focus on the synthetic aspects of this techn ique such as the particle size control and the analysis of the diversi ty of surfactants which allow formation of polymerizable microemulsion s. The control of the chemical functionality or nature of the particle surfaces which may be as large as 300 m(2)/g and its use for chemistr y is a further topic of this paper. A personal analysis of the actual future trends in this rapidly developing field such as the polymerizat ion of complex morphologies is closing the paper.