Novel approach for the synthesis of core-shell polystyrene nanoparticles by living hydrophilic polymer consisting of thiocarbonyl thio end group is reported. The surfactant free emulsion polymerization of styrene in the presence of macro-RAFT (reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer) agent is carried out to synthesize stable latex particles with smaller particle size. A macro-RAFT agent is prepared by homo-polymerization of sodium styrene sulfonate (NaSS) in aqueous phase by using dithioester as chain transfer agent. This synthesized polystyrene sulfonate-sodium (PSS-Na) based macro-RAFT agent, which is essentially water soluble macromolecular chain transfer agent used for the surfactant-free batch emulsion polymerization of styrene. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) study of the synthesized colloids shows the narrow particle size distribution with core-shell morphology. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.