Patent ID: 7947751

Claim:
A method of making unexpanded resin beads comprising: forming a dispersion of organic droplets of an organic liquid phase in an aqueous phase, which can be stationary or flowing, wherein the organic phase contains an organic solution comprising one or more elastomeric polymers dissolved in a monomer solution comprising one or more aryl polymerizable monomers, and the dispersed organic droplets having an average diameter of from about 0.001 mm to about 10 mm; and polymerizing the monomers in the dispersed organic droplets in a low shear flow pattern to form unexpanded polymer beads; wherein the unexpanded resin beads have an average particle size of from 0.001 mm to 10 mm and comprise a continuous phase and a particulate dispersed phase, wherein the only polymers in the continuous phase are elastomeric polymers, and the dispersed phase comprises one or more homopolymers and/or copolymers containing repeat units resulting from the polymerization of one or more aryl polymerizable monomers.