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

The monodisperse micron-sized polystyrene particles crosslinked with polyether diol diacrylates were produced by a simple dispersion polymerization in an ethanol solution. Unlike conventional divinylmonomers, the polyether diol diacrylates used as a crosslinker showed an excellent effect on maintaining the particle monodispersity even in a moderate crosslinker concentration. It is believed that the monomer-diffusible surface of primary particles played a decisive role in achieving the monodispersity of final particles by 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.