Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Polystyrene microspheres have been widely used in solid-phase organic synthesis, biomedical applications, polymeric absorption and supported catalyst based on high specific surface area, strong absorbability, good mechanical property, strong reactivity, great surface activity and recycling. Therefore it is a lasting and important task for daily process control to produce polystyrene microspheres at appropriate particle size according to market demand.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the influence of dispersant amount, type and adding times on the dispersed properties of polystyrene microspheres.
METHODS: The polystyrene microspheres were prepared by suspension polymerization in water as dispersing medium, without adding any stabilizers. Polystyrene 0.5 g was weighed at all the experimental conditions to measure the number of the particles contained. As for the same quality of polystyrene particles, more particles contained indicated smaller particle size. The surface morphology and particle size distribution of polystyrene particles were observed under Panasonic digital camera.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: ① With the increasing amount of dispersing agent, the number of polystyrene particles also increased, especially at 0.8 g and 1.0 g dispersant, the number of particles sharply increased, particle size decreases rapidly in the topography. ② Using polyvinyl alcohol alone, the number of particles significantly increased along with the increasing amount of alcohol, the topography showed the particle size decreased sharply, indicating a good dispersion; Using sodium phosphate alone and using a compound dispersant of polyvinyl alcohol and sodium phosphate, the number of particles reduced along with the increase of dispersant, the topography showed that particle size significantly increased. ③ With the increasing times of adding dispersant, the number of polystyrene particles was also increasing under the same quality. The additional times increase may accelerate the dispersion effect of dispersants to some extent.