SIZE AND COMPOSITIONAL STUDIES OF CORE-SHELL LATEXES USING FLOW AND THERMAL FIELD-FLOW FRACTIONATION

Two field-flow fractionation (FFF) techniques, flow FFF and thermal FF F, have been used as complementary techniques in a study of core-shell latex particles. Different types of physicochemical information about the particles can be obtained since the fields used in the two techni ques interact with different particle properties. The hydrodynamic dia meters (and diameter distributions) of the latex particles were measur ed as a function of pH using flow FFF. Retention in thermal FFF was fo und to depend on shell composition. These FFF techniques, used togethe r, are shown to be capable of characterizing both the physical size an d shell composition of this important class of particles.