Monodisperse micron-sized crosslinked polystyrene particles. VII. Importance of monomer-diffusible surface characteristics of growing particles

The monodisperse micron-sized polystyrene particles crosslinked with polyet her diol diacrylates were produced by a simple dispersion polymerization in an ethanol solution. Unlike conventional divinylmonomers, the polyether di ol diacrylates used as a crosslinker showed an excellent effect on maintain ing the particle monodispersity even in a moderate crosslinker concentratio n. It is believed that the monomer-diffusible surface of primary particles played a decisive role in achieving the monodispersity of final particles b y suppressing the second nucleation. The importance of monomer-diffusivity was tried to understand systematically in producing the crosslinked micron- sized polymer particles by the dispersion polymerization. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.