Thank you for your question. We did not try other coats than silica and carboxyl (MAA). However, instead of methacrylic acid you should be able to coat the core particles with hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) in the same kind of polymerisation reaction (simply to replace MAA with HEMA. This should provide a surface with OH groups.
Not sure if this is exactly what you need, but maybe worth a try.