Abstract: The scanning tunneling microscopy(STM) was used to investigate polystyrene microparticles. The STMimages show that the polystyrene surfaces have different modes of coagulation. In some regions, the polymer chains are found to be orderly packed without entanglement. In some proper case, the phenyl groups in the same chain can stack up as a parallel displaced(PD) structure, similar to that predicted for benzene dimers. The polystyrene microparticles swelled with a mount of benzene was also investigated, the polymer chains with helical structures as well as the polymer chains with distortion can be observed. The existence of the orderly packed polymer chains and phenyl stacks may be due to the fact that styrene monomer stack in an orderly fashion in some parts within micromicellae.

Key words: Polystyrene microparticle, Ordered structure, Phenyl stacks, Scanning tunneling microscopy(Ed.: H,L)