Monodisperse copolymer nanosphere assembly by miniemulsion polymerization

[Display omitted] •Solvent used is water where nearly monodispersed polymer nanospheres are dispersed.•Polymerization gives a high yield at even 30-min reaction time.•Without any controlled method, the polymers are well controlled with a higher molecular weight.•Copolymer spheres thus formed are in nanometre scale as determined by DLS analysis.•Use of co-stabiliser does not affect the particle sizes. Hydrophobic monomer 1-octene/ethylene with less hydrophobic monomer methyl methacrylate is used to produce copolymer of high molecular weights nanoparticles with narrow molecular weight distribution by mini emulsion polymerization. Concomitant results from dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis divulges the development of nano-scaled polymeric spheres with nearly uniform particle size distribution. Spectroscopy techniques (FT-IR and 1H NMR) confirms the presence of ester functional group as well as methylene group in the copolymer. With increase in olefinic concentration in the monomer feed increases its specific signals for only methylene proton in the copolymer. Thermal properties of the copolymers established by thermogravimetric analysis (TG) methods exhibits good thermal stability up to a temperature of 400°C.