Anomalous polymer particles of narrow size distribution prepared by insertion and evaporation of Fe(CO)(5) from uniform polystyrene template microspheres

Uniform polystyrene template spherical particles of 2.5 +/- 0.1 mu m were prepared by dispersion polymerization of styrene in a mixture of ethanol and 2-methoxy ethanol. Uniform biphase hemispherical polystyrene/Fe(CO)(5) particles were formed by swelling the polystyrene template particles dispersed in water with emulsion droplets containing mixtures of methylene chloride and different volumes of Fe(CO)(5), followed by evaporation of the methylene chloride. Additional evaporation of the Fe(CO)(5) from the biphase polystyrene/Fe(CO)(5) particles leads to uniform anomalous shapes monodispersed polystyrene particles. The anomalous morphologies (dents, holes, and cupola) are dependent on the Fe(CO)(5) volume entrapped within the polystyrene particles. Evaporation of relatively high volume of Fe(CO)(5) leads to uniquely shaped pierced uniform particles. The described method may open the door for developing a new methodology for preparing PS particles of controlled morphologies, by insertion and then evaporation of various precursors from PS template particles.