The coagulation and phenyl stacks on the surfaces of polystyrene microparticles

The scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was used to investigate polystyrene microparticles, The STM images show that the polystyrene surfaces have dif ferent modes of coagulation, In some regions, the polymer chains are found to be orderly packed without entanglement. In some proper case, the phenyl groups in the same chain can stack up as a parallel-displaced (PD) structur e, similar to that predicted for benzene dimers, The polystyrene microparti cles swelled with a mount of benzene was also investigated, the polymer cha ins with helical structures as well as the polymer chains with distortion c an be observed, The existence of the orderly-packed polymer chains and phen yl stacks may be due to the fact that styrene monomer stack in an orderly f ashion in some parts within micromicellae.