Electrostatic Potential Elastic Body-Like Behavior of Ordered Structure of PVC Particles in Non-Aqueous Solvent

Abstract

Monodisperse polyvinylchloride (PVC) spherical particles were prepared by emulsion polymerization. The PVC particles dispersed in the dioctylphtalate have high ζ-potential and form a regular structure of face-centered cubic closed packing. This suspension, in which the crystal-like ordered structure is formed, showed a linear dynamic visco-elastic behavior at low frequencies (0.001Hz~1Hz) under a small strain unless the magnitude of distortion of the particle exceeded the lattice distance.
The value of the dynamic rigidity evaluated by experiments at zero frequency limit agreed well with the theoretical value of the static rigidity which was calculated by using modified Hahn-Bross equation. It is suggested that the elastic nature of the crystal-like structure in PVC-suspension is due to an electrostatic potential which is similar to the ionic potential in an ionic crystal. As the speeds or the Brownian motions of the particles and ions become slower by the increase is the medium viscosity, the suspension exhibits stronger elastic properties attributable to the electrostatic potential.