Polystyrene Microspheres

Gday Gents,

Did a pretty simple experiment today and figured id share.

I wanted to make some polystyrene Microspheres to use to help characterise some imaging equipment.

So I de-solved some polystyrene in acetone. I was surprised to find that only a small amount of the polystyrene is soluble in acetone despite hours of stirring the bulk of the 'disolved' styrene just sat at the bottom of the beaker as a floaty fluffy marshmellow type blob.

None the less I decanted the non marshmellow acetone off and added an equal amount of water producing a opaque milky suspension.

I then put a drop of this liquid onto a clean microscope slide evaporated it and had a look.
and this is what i saw.




Im not sure if these are usefull for much but they seem look similar to some old comercal microsphears I found