Process for producing styrenic polymer beads of preferred bead size

摘要

Styrenic polymer beads of a preferred size are produced from styrenic polymer beads of a smaller size by forming an aqueous suspension of the styrenic polymer beads and adding thereto, under polymerization conditions, an aqueous emulsion formed by admixing styrenic monomer and a catalyst therefor with water containing a nonionic surfactant that is an ethylene oxide condensate of an alkylphenol, which contains at least fifty moles of ethylene oxide per mole of alkylphenol. The beads of preferred size are formed without formation of fine styrenic polymer particles and without significant amounts of clusters of beads.