The present work demonstrates the possible use of emulsion polymerization for fabricating structured-polymer particles which can store active materials. The hollow polymer particles were synthesized by multi-stage emulsion polymerization consisting of four main stages, (1) the preparation of alkali-swellable core latexes containing active materials, (2) first core-shell polymerization of a monomer mixture of methyl methacrylate (MMA), butyl acrylate (BA) and methacrylic acid (MAA), (3) second core-shell polymerization of styrene and (4) a neutralization stage. The morphology of synthesized capsules was observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The size of the capsule prepared by standard recipe was around 300 nm and the polydispersity index was 0.024 representing that size distribution was highly monodisperse. The specific target material of encapsulation was the phosphoric acid partial ester. The amount of phosphoric acid partial ester encapsulated was determined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). From studies of encapsulation behaviors, it was found that the encapsulation efficiency and location of phosphoric acid partial ester in the interior of the particles were mainly dependant on its partition coefficient. In addition, the morphology of polymer capsule was manipulated by varying process parameters. The morphology changes, such as those of pore size and roughness of polymer shell, were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and analysis of nitrogen adsorption and desorption isotherm. When neutralized with N,N'-dimethylethanolamine simultaneously during the styrene polymerization, the surface area of polymer capsule was increased drastically by about 5 times due to the formation of mesopores and the roughening of the surface on the hollow polymer shell. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.