Micromolding-polymerization as a novel method for production of nonspherical polymer particles: formation mechanism of polystyrene particles

Abstract

In the present study, time course analysis of micromolding-polymerization, as a novel approach for preparation of nonspherical particles, was carried out in order to investigate the formation mechanism of polystyrene particles. It was observed that incomplete half-shell, porous half-shell, and pitted olive-like particle are produced during reaction, respectively. The results showed that the surface area of polystyrene (PS) particles remains constant with increasing styrene conversion from 63 % up to 84 %. In addition, it was shown that particles with high porosity can be obtained during polymerization. Moreover, the effect of particle size distribution of micromolds (solvent-swollen polymeric particles), the presence of an excessive amount of hydrocarbon in the media, and the type of initiator on the shape of particles were investigated. The effect of stabilizer type on the shape and stability of produced particles was another factor that was examined. Production of particles having an almond shell-like shape in the presence of an excessive amount of hydrocarbon was one of the interesting findings of this study. In addition, it was found that the particle shape remains constant with changing stabilizer and initiator type.

Synthetic Strategies for Polymer Particles with Surface Concavities

“…Dimpled polymer particles have been conveniently prepared via various polymerization techniques, either seeded polymerization [ 53–93 ] or one‐step polymerization. [ 94–108 ] In most cases, the polymerization recipe involves the use of a cross‐linker (e.g., divinylbenzene (DVB)) or a comonomer that can form rigid shell during polymerization (e.g., 3‐(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate (TPM)).…”

“…Various seeded polymerization techniques including emulsion polymerization, [53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66] surfactant-free emulsion polymerization, [67][68][69][70][71][72][73] and dispersion polymerization [74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83] have been employed for the formation of dimpled polymer particles with preformed polymer particles as seeds.…”

Optically Active Particles with Tunable Morphology: Prepared by Embedding Graphene Oxide/Fe3O4 in Helical Polyacetylene

“…17 They also can be used as novel biohybrids. 18 For preparing polymer-derived NSPs, a variety of elegant methods have been established including (seed) emulsion polymerization, 19 self-assembly, 20 multistep polymerization, 21 pressing, 22 templating, 23 and micromolding polymerization 24 processes. More recently, NSPs containing multicavity structures were also reported.…”

Preparation of “hard-soft” Janus polymeric particles via seeded dispersion polymerization in the presence of n-paraffin droplets

“…Shape and morphology of the particles is one of these characteristics which have been used widely for such a reason. Therefore, particles with different shapes and morphologies including "spherical", [1][2][3][4] "hemispherical", 5 "egg-like", 6 "confetti-like", 7 "raspberry-like", [8][9][10][11] "snowman-like", 7,12 "rugby-ball-like", 13 golf-ball-like, 14 disklike, [15][16][17][18] red blood corpuscle-like, 19 almond-shell-like, 20,21 bowllike, 22,23 multi-layered, 24 cage-like, 25,26 and so forth have been developed.…”