Conductive composite particles and processes for the preparation thereof

A process for the preparation of conductive submicron polymeric particles consisting essentially of mixing at least one monomer with a polymerization initiator, a crosslinking component and a chain transfer component;

• effecting bulk polymerization until from about 10 to about 50 weight percent of the monomer has been polymerized;
• terminating polymerization by cooling the partially polymerized monomer;
• adding thereto from about 1 to about 50 weight percent of a conductive filler, or conductive fillers, followed by mixing thereof;
• dispersing the aforementioned mixture of conductive filler or fillers, and partially polymerized product in water containing a stabilizing component selected from the group consisting of nonionic and ionic water soluble polymeric stabilizers to obtain a suspension of particles with an average diameter of from about 0.05 to about 1 micron in water;
• polymerizing the resulting suspension by heating;
• and subsequently washing and drying the product.