Rigid polymer particle toughened polystyrene with no effect on its transparency

A kind of rigid polymer microsphere with core-shell structure was synthesiz ed by multi-step composite emulsion polymerization technique. The polystyre ne(PS) composite with different particle sizes, concentration and core laye r crosslinking agent of core-shell particles were prepared. The impact stre ngth and the transparency were studied which indicated that the best condit ion for toughening PS was that the particle size was above 100 nm, the part icle content in PS composite was in the range of 2%-5% and the appropriate crosslinking density in core layer. The material toughness was improved two times higher than that of pure PS while the PS transparency was not affect ed.