Effect of particle size on the filming process of polystyrene latex studied by AFM

The film formation process of micro-PS particles (diameter 742 nm) and nano-PS particles (diameter 29 nm) was studied by atomic force microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. During a step heating process, the particles were annealed for 0.5 h at each selected temperature. It was found that the deformation and interdiffusion temperatures of the micro-PS particles are ca. 120-130degreesC and 140-150degreesC, that of the nano-PS particles are 90degreesC and 100-110degreesC respectively. The DSC traces of nano-PS particles showed that there was an exothermic peak near T-g after annealing for 0.5 h at the selected temperatures below 90degreesC; otherwise, the exothermic peak disappeared after annealing at 100degreesC or above. Compared with the micro-PS particles, the sintering process of nano-PS particles occurs at much lower temperature determined by the confined state of polymer chains with higher conformational energy in nano-particles, and completes in a much narrower temperature range driven mainly by the larger total surface energy.