Polymerization in microemulsions - a new approach to ultrafine, highly functionalized polymer dispersions

Polymerization in microemulsions is a new polymerization technique which allows the synthesis of ultrafine latex particles within the size range 5 nm < R < 50 nm and with narrow size distribution. This article presents a short review of the current literature in this field. Beside a short introduction into some kinetic aspects of polymerization in microemulsions, we mainly focus on the synthetic aspects of this technique such as the particle size control and the analysis of the diversity of surfactants which allow formation of polymerizable microemulsions. The control of the chemical functionality or nature of the particle surfaces which may be as large as 300 m2/g and its use for chemistry is a further topic of this paper. A personal analysis of the actual future trends in this rapidly developing field such as the polymerization of complex morphologies is closing the paper.