An easy way to control the morphology of colloidal polymer-oxide supraparticles through seeded dispersion...

SiO(2)/polystyrene colloidal supraparticles were synthesized through dispersion polymerization by using poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) as stabilizer, in the presence of silica particles coated with methacryloxymethyltriethoxysilane. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy studies indicate that dumbbell-like or snowman-like supraparticles can be prepared by taking advantage of the coalescence phenomenon which occurs between growing polymer nodules in pure alcoholic medium, at high monomer concentration and/or at high temperature. By decreasing both temperature and monomer concentration, while adding a varying amount of water in the alcoholic reaction medium, core-shell or other interesting morphology binary supraparticles were obtained.