Shell crosslinked core-shell nanoparticles (SCCSN) with modified SiO2 as core and crosslinked polystyrene (PS) as shell were prepared via miniemulsion polymerization in the presence of silane modified nanosilica.The structure characterization of SCCSN was examined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM)

thermogravimetry (TG)

dynamic light scattering (DLS)

modulated differential scanning calorimetry (MDSC) and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA).It was found SCCSN of about 90 nm in diameter was spherical and could uniformly disperse after surface grafting PS.In addition

the glass transition temperature of SCCSN obviously increased with increasing divinyl benzene amounts.The PS shell was crosslinked using divinyl benzene as crosslinker

which not only tightly anchors the shell on the nanoparticle surface

raises PS grafted ratio and prevents nanoparticles interaction

but also segregates the silica core from the matrix and avoids entanglement between the shell PS and the matrix macromolecules in SCCSN filled PS composites.MDSC analyses showed that both silica and SCCSN led to slight reduction in glass transition temperature of PS.Dynamic rheology showed both silica and SCCSN did not influence the mechanism responsible for the origin of rheological nonlinearity assigned to disentanglement of PS macromolecules in the matrix.The SiO2 core in SCCSN exhibited a reinforcement effect slightly stronger than that of bare SiO2 particles and the reinforcement was related to the crosslinking degree of the PS shell.