Influence of shell strength on shape transformation of micron-sized,monodisperse, hollow polymer particles

Micron-sized, monodisperse, non-spherical polymer particles with "rugby ball" and "red blood corpuscle"-like shapes were produced by seeded polymerization of the dispersion of (divinylbenzene/vinylbiphenyl/xylene)-swollen polystyrene particles prepared by utilizing the dynamic swelling method which the authors proposed in 1991. Their non-spherical shapes were based on buckling of the shell of the resultant hollow particles. In this article, the reversible shape transformation of the hollow composite polymer particle between spherical and such non-spherical shapes was studied in detail by controlling the shell strength. A part of the shell was buckled by external pressure which was caused by evaporation of xylene from the hollow when the shell had the tensile modulus below the critical value calculated from the pressure-buckling relationship of a spherical shell proposed by Uemura. The plasticization of the shell by a good solvent was one of key factors for the shape transformation.