Abstract
An attempt was made to orderly arrange a large number of polystyrene particles dispersed in aqueous medium on the electrode surface and fix the formed particle arrangement. The measuring cell used consisted of two transparent indium tin electrodes 500 μm apart from each other in the vertical direction. The gap between the electrodes was filled with a dispersion of polystyrene particles (5 μm size) and the behavior of the particles in electric fields applied between the electrodes was on-site observed with an optical microscope. Simultaneous application of DC and AC fields caused polystyrene particles to form single-layered clusters each consisting of several tens particles on the lower electrode. Densely arranged clusters were formed for the particles with polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH), a cationic polyelectrolyte, adsorbed on their surface upon application of DC and AC fields and the clusters formed remained unbroken after removal of the fields. No cluster formation was observed, however, for the particles after adsorbing the cationic polyelectrolyte and then poly (sodium styrenesulfonate) (PSS), an anionic polyelectrolyte. These findings suggested that particle arrangement and its fixation of polystyrene particles are appreciably affected by polyelectrolyte adsorption.
