Structure of the Laves Phase in Polystyrene Latexes

This paper describes the light-microscopic observations of polystyrene latexes whose particles have spherical bodies with two different diameters: d and 1.4∼1.9d. It is shown that polystyrene latexes are of use to simulate real structures in intermetallic compounds.An amorphous state appeared for a few hours after stirring or vibrating latexes, and subsequently, the Laves phase nucleated and grew by the Brownian motion of particles when the diameters were d and 1.4∼1.7d. The Laves phase of the MgCu2 or MgZn2 type was observed, containing some lattice defects such as grain boundaries, dislocations, vacancies, or miss-arranged particles.