Abstract
The packing of binary mixtures of spheres is a function of the diameter ratio and composition. In this study we have investigated the elastic modulus, dynamic viscosity and osmotic pressure of monodispersed polystyrene latex particles of diameter 204 nm and 1400 nm and their mixtures. The diameter ratio was therefore fixed as 0.15 and composition and total particle volume fraction were the main variables. At high particle volume fractions, <0.6, the extrapolated elastic modulus exhibited a minimum when the ratio of small to large particles was 0.2. In addition the osmotic pressure data at volume fractions of 0.6 and 0.65 also showed a minimum at a ratio of 0.2. The highest maximum packing fraction is expected if the large particles are arranged randomly packed and small particles fill the voids of a large particle system so that the whole system has a minimum voids volume. For the current particle size ratio, as may be deduced from crystallographic arguments, this occurs at a volume ratio of around 20%. For the more dilute systems it was found that the elastic modulus and osmotic pressures decreased as the fraction of small particles in the system decreased. This is essentially a consequence of the mean particle spacing decreasing as the number of small particles in the system decreases.
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