Time evolution of film formation from polystyrene particles: a percolation approach

This work reports the film formation process from surfactant-free polystyrene (PS) latex particles. Steady state fluorescence and photon transmission techniques were used to study the evolution of film formation. The films were prepared from fluorescein (F)-labeled PS latex particles at room temperature and annealed in 2.5-min-time intervals above the glass transition temperature (T-g) of PS. Fluorescence intensity (I-F) from F was measured after each annealing step to monitor the stages of film formation. Evolution of transparency of latex films was monitored by using the photon transmission intensity, I-tr. Drastic increase in I-tr and I-F above the critical annealing times t(r) and t(c) respectively, were attributed to the percolation behavior of the PS material. Critical exponents, beta, of percolation clusters were measured and found to be around 0.31 and 0.37 for Itr and IF measurement, respectively, which were attributed to the site percolation model.