0000000000964485
AUTHOR
Nico Dingenouts
Residual order in amorphous dry films of polymer latices: indications of an influence of particle interaction
Abstract We report small angle X-ray scattering and atomic force microscopy measurements on macroscopically thick, dry films of polymer latex particles. While the surface of dried droplets has long range order due to layering effects, the overall bulk structure is amorphous. This holds for both low charge polymethylmetacrylate particles and for highly charged polystyrene particles with additional stabilisation with sodiumdodecylsurfate. In the latter case, however, considerable amounts of residual crystal-like order is observed.
Vitrification in restricted geometry: dry films of colloidal particles
We prepared dry films of colloidal particles from surfactant co-stabilized polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate) latex spheres of moderate polydispersity. The film thickness was varied from monolayer to some 20 μm. The average structure and the influence of polydispersity was analyzed by small-angle X-ray scattering. An analysis of local microscopic structures was performed by force microscopy on the least polydisperse sample. Irrespective of the thickness, we observe the formation of only short-ranged order which is rather pronounced but changes its qualitative character in the vicinity of the substrate. The observations suggest a bulk structure of small, defect-rich and stacking fault…