Characterization of rubber particle size distribution of high‐impact polystyrene using low‐angle laser light scattering

Abstract
A new application of low‐angle laser light scattering has led to a new instrument capable of characterizing the rubber particle size distribution of high‐impact polystyrene (HIPS) containing particles as small as 0.1 μ. Rubber particle size distributions of several HIPS resins have been characterized, and the particle size ranking of resins using light scattering parallels the ranking of resins using photomicroscopy. Several solvents have been employed to suspend the HIPS rubber particles for the scattering determination. Swelling of the rubber phase has been found to be relatively insensitive to variations in rubber phase crosslinking when methyl ethyl ketone is used to suspend the rubber particles. Particle swelling in methyl ethyl ketone does not detract from the usefulness of the light scattering method for HIPS rubber particle size characterization.