Properties of concentrated polystyrene latex dispersions

Abstract
In order to understand the properties of concentrated dispersions it is necessary to obtain the spatial and temporal locations of the particles in the system as a function of both the volume fraction and the electrolyte concentration and to correlate this with theoretical models. A useful experimental technique for examination of the static structure factor is provided by small-angle neutron scattering, using cold neutrons with a wavelength of ca. 10 Å, since the scattering vectors then available are appropriate for systems containing small particles over a wide range of volume fractions. Polystyrene latices consisting of spherical particles of radius 157 Å, with a narrow distribution of particle sizes, provide an excellent system for such studies. Structures are reported for these latices covering a range of volume fractions from 0.01 to 0.14 and electrolyte concentrations from very low values, ion-exchanged systems, up to 5 × 10–3 mol dm–3 sodium chloride. The structure factors obtained are compared with various theoretical models for electrostatically interacting systems.