COATING OF UNIFORM INORGANIC PARTICLES WITH POLYMERS .1.

Uniform spherical silica particles have been first coated with aluminum hydrous oxide and then with poly(divinylbenzene). To produce the outer shell, the inorganic cores were pretreated with a vinyl coupling agent, then divinylbenzene, and an initiator in hot mineral spirits. The thickness of the alumina or polymer layers could be controlled by adjusting the experimental parameters. The same procedure was used to coat irregularly shaped commercial alumina particles. The charge of the so prepared particles was determined by potentiometric titrations, which showed that the polymer coating was permeable to the reactants. Thus, the titration curves were determined by the properties of the cores. © 1993 by Academic Press, Inc.