Synthesis and Characterization of Pressure and Temperature Dual‐Responsive Polystyrene Microbeads

A facile approach to the synthesis of pressure and temperature dual‐responsive polystyrene (PS) microbeads with controlled sizes via dispersion polymerization is described. Three different luminophors are selected and directly introduced into the reaction system and thus incorporated into the resultant PS microbeads during polymerization. By manipulating the reaction conditions, including concentrations of the initiator and monomer, polarity of the reaction medium, and injection rate for the monomer, uniform PS microbeads with sizes ranging from 1 to 5 μm are obtained. When a light source centered at 365 nm is used to excite all the luminophors in the PS beads, three distinct and resolvable emission peaks corresponding well with the luminophors are observed. By taking advantage of their sensitive responses to both pressure and temperature, the PS beads can be utilized for quantitative measurements of these two stimulations simultaneously. The PS beads loaded with multiple luminophors have the ability to serve as building blocks for the fabrication of novel sensing and imaging devices and therefore provide a promising strategy for the study of aerodynamics.