Narrow-disperse or monodisperse crosslinked and functional core-shell polymer particles prepared by two-stage precipitation polymerization

Narrow-disperse and monodisperse crosslinked cort-shell polymer particles containing different functional groups, such as esters, hydroxyls, chloromethyls, carboxylic acids, amides, cyanos, and glycidyls, in the shell layers in the micrometer size range were prepared by a two-stage precipitation polymerization in the absence of any stabilizer. Commercial divinylbenzene (DVB), containing 80% DVB, was precipitation polymerized in acetonitrile without any stabilizer as the first-stage polymerization and was used as the core. Several functional monomers, including methyl methacrylate, ethyl methacrylate, butyl methacrylate, 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, glycidyl methacrylate, methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, butyl acrylate, t-butyl acrylate, i-octyl acrylate, acrylic acid, acrylamide, acrylonitrile, styrene, and p-chloromethyl styrene, were incorporated into the shells during the second-stage polymerization. The resulting core-shell polymer particles were characterized with scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.