A preparation method for multilayered gold-silica-poly styrene core-shell composite particles is proposed. The gold-silica core-shell particles of 192-nm-sized, synthesized by coating the 18-nm-sized gold particles with silica by a seeded growth technique, were used as cores for succeeding polystyrene coating. After surface modification of gold-silica composite particles by methacryloxypropyltilmethoxysitane (MPTMS), polymerizations of styrene (0.16-0.4 M) were conducted with 8 x 10(-3) M of potassium persulfate initiator in the presence of 1 x 10(-3) M of sodium p-styrenesulfonate anionic monomer. Multilayered core-shell gold-silica-polystyrene particles that contained a single core could be obtained. The coefficient of variation of size distribution (C-V) of the composite particles was less than 7%, and polystyrene shell thickness was in a range of 193 to 281 nm. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.