PARTICLE STRUCTURE AND STABILITY OF COLLOIDAL DISPERSIONS AS PROBED BY THE KOSSEL DIFFRACTION TECHNIQUE

A nondestructive Kossel diffraction technique based on the principle o f back-light scattering was used to characterize the structure formati on which results from the interparticle interactions in colloidal disp ersions. Static structure factors, radial distribution functions, and average pair potentials, which characterize the particle packing struc tures in model systems of hydroxylate latex dispersions, were obtained . The effects of particle concentration and polydispersity on particle structuring and dispersion stability were also studied. Computer simu lations based on the Ornstein-Zernike method were compared with the ex perimental results. Good quantitative agreement was observed. (C) 1997 Academic Press.