Investigation of synthesis parameters on particle size in styrene emulsion polymerization

Monodisperse nano sized polystyrene spheres were fabricated by surfactant-free emulsion polymerization in water and ethanol mixture using styrene and potassium persulfate and the size-growth process was experimentally measured. In the meanwhile, the diameter and coefficient variation rates of the final fabricated spheres to the initial seed particles were also investigated. Compared the measured size distribution with the estimated, it was found that the coefficient variation was enlarged due to the inhomogeneous parameters. Therefore, the more homogeneous spheres can be generated by selection of more uniform initial seed particles and meticulous adjusting synthesis parameters. Moreover, this facile and robust estimation method can be potentially employed in the analysis of other polymerization methods of dispersion polymerization and emulsion polymerization, and among others. - -