Monodisperse polymer particles synthesized by seeded polymerization techniques

Fundamental and applied researches, based on the seeded polymerization techniques, have offered new ways for synthesizing more advanced polymer colloids, thereby widening their applicability in industries. The robustness of these techniques enables the production of a wide variety of functional polymer colloids while maintaining their excellent monodispersity in size from hundreds of nanometers to hundreds of micrometers. In this review, we demonstrate the seeded polymerization techniques provide the synthesis of many types of polymer colloids, including surface-functional polymer particles, microcapsules, porous polymer particles, and non-spherical polymer particles. Finally, we show that the network properties play a crucial role in determining morphological, chemical, and mechanical properties of the resulting particles. (c) 2007 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.