Synthesis of monodisperse crosslinked polystyrene microspheres

Abstract

Monodisperse crosslinked polystyrene (CPS) particles were prepared through the normal emulsion polymerization method by adding crosslinker - divinylbenzene (DVB) into the reaction system after polystyrene (PS) particles grew to ∼80% of the final size. When the amount of crosslinker DVB added was less than 6.17 wt% based on styrene, the prepared CPS particles were spherical and uniform and the size of the CPS particles could be predicted through the normal emulsion method. The glass transition temperature (Tg) of the prepared CPS particles was higher than that of un-crosslinked PS particles and, the more crosslinker that was added, the higher the Tg of CPS Particles. The prepared CPS particles had strong resistance to organic solvents. © China University of Petroleum (Beijing) and Springer-Verlag GmbH 2008.