ABSTRACT
Various novel applications in biotechnology, biomedical engineering, information industry, and microelectronics involve the use of polymeric microspheres with controlled size and surface properties [1-3]. Traditionally, the polymer microspheres larger than I 00 #Lm with a certain size distribution have been produced by the suspension polymerization process, where the monomer droplets are broken into micron-size in the existence of a stabilizer and are subsequently polymerized within a continuous medium by using an oil-soluble initiator. Suspension polymerization is u~ually preferred for the production of polymeric particles in the size range of 50-1000 JJ.m. But, there is a wide size distribution in the product due to the inherent size distribution of the mechanical homogenization and due to the coalescence problem. The size distribution is measured with the standard deviation or the coefficient of variation (CV) and the suspension polymerization provides polymeric microspheres with CVs varying from 15-30%.
