The preparation of monodisperse polyacrylonitrile particles in the presence of AB block co-polymers of poly-2-vinylpyridine/poly tertbutylstyrene

Radical dispersion polymerisation of acrylonitrile in cyclohexane was performed in the presence of the diblock copolymer poly-2-vinylpyridine/poly tertbutylstyrene, giving polymer latex particles stabilised by surface layers of chains of poly tertbutylstyrene. A seeded polymerisation route was employed and the addition of up to a further seven feeds of reactants resulted in the particle growth and the total volume fraction of particles increased to 0.2. The effect of varying the molecular weight of the stabiliser and stabiliser concentration was also investigated. Particle diameter in the range 40–150 nm were obtained depending on the condition of the polymerisation.