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Abstract
Hydroxyl-functionalized polystyrene (HFPS) microspheres were prepared by the copolymerization of styrene (St) and hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) via dispersion polymerization in the absence of steric stabilizers. The copolymerization was conducted with V-50 as an initiator. The effect of initiator concentration, HEA amount, and medium composition on the average diameters and coefficient variations of HFPS microspheres were systematically investigated. The particle morphology, the average diameters, the surface N content, and the particle size distribution curves were measured by SEM, XPS, and laser particle size analyzer. The results indicated that monodisperse HFPS microspheres with diameter of 0.6–1.0 μm could be successfully generated by dispersion polymerization of St and HEA without steric stabilizers. Therefore, overall, the present manuscript provided a simple route to generate monodisperse hydroxyl-functionalized polymer microspheres.