A SMALL-ANGLE X-RAY-SCATTERING STUDY OF BROMINE-CONTAINING LATEX-PARTICLES

A small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) study of two-stage latices (TSL) , composed of polystyrene (PS) and polytribromostyrene (PTBrS), is pre sented. The analysis of the scattering curves leads to the conclusion that the TSL particles have a concentric core-shell structure. When a PTBrS latex was used as a seed, its particles were overcoated with a P S shell during the second-stage polymerization. However, only a small portion of the seed particles were overcoated with a PTBrS shell when using a PS seed. The size distributions of the TSL and the PTBrS latex particles were determined from the scattering curves, using the metho d of Indirect Fourier Transformation. The resulting average radii were in good agreement with the values obtained from TEM observations. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.