COMPUTER MODELING OF RUBBER-TOUGHENED PLASTICS .2. GEOMETRIC-MODELS OF HIGH-IMPACT POLYSTYRENE AND CALCULATION OF INTERPARTICLE DISTANCE PARAMETERS

Coarse models of high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) have been created by computer simulation of the rubber particle spacing in the resin. Interparticle surface-surface distance parameters can be calculated from the models to help explain properties of real materials and predict the properties of hypothetical impact-polystyrene resins. Calculations of the geometric spacing of rubber particles in a group of hypothetical HIPS resins show that a narrow rubber-particle size distribution gives smaller interparticle distance and more reinforcing particles compared to broad distributions for a given average particle size.