Monodisperse soluble organopolysiloxane particles

Crosslinked organopolysiloxane particles where each particle is a single molecule, comprising;

• 0.5 to 80.0% by weight of units of the formula
• R.sub.3 SiO.sub.1/2 ( 1),
• 0 to 99.0% by weight of units of the formula
• R.sub.2 SiO.sub.2/2 ( 2),
• 0 to 99.5% by weight of units of the formula
• RSiO.sub.3/2 ( 3),
• 0 to 80.0% by weight of units of the formula
• SiO.sub.4/2 ( 4)
• and
• 0 to 20.0% by weight of units of the formula
• R.sub.a Si(O.sub.(3-a)/2)--R.sup.1 --X--(R.sup.1 --Si(O.sub.(3-a)/2)).sub.b R.sub.a ( 5),
• where
• R is a hydrogen atom or identical or different, monovalent SiC-bonded, optionally substituted C.sub.1 to C.sub.18 -hydrocarbon radical,
• R.sup.1 is an identical or different divalent, optionally substituted C.sub.1 to Ch.sub.18 -hydrocarbon radical, which is optionally interrupted by divalent radicals from the group consisting of --O--, --COO--, --OOC--, --CONR.sup.2-, --NR.sup.2 CO-- and --CO-- bonded to carbon atoms on each side,
• R.sup.2 is a hydrogen atom or a radical R,
• X is a radical selected from the group consisting of --N.dbd.N--, --O--O--, --S--S-- and --C(C.sub.6 H.sub.5).sub.2 --C(C.sub.6 H.sub.5).sub.2 --,
• a has a value of 0, 1 or 2 and
• b has a value of 0 or 1,
• with the proviso that the sum of the units of formulae (3) and (4) is at least 0.5%, the percent by weight is based on the total weight of the particle and where at least 80% of the particles have a diameter which does not deviate from an average diameter of 5 to 200 nm by more than 30% and the particles are soluble in a solvent in an amount of at least 5% by weight.