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Particle & Particle Systems Characterization, Vol.17, No.3, 89-95, 2000
Determination of absolute intensity and molecular weight of small colloidal particles in the presence of some large aggregates. A combined study using static and dynamic light scattering
For the purpose of absolute intensity calibration in static light scattering experiments, a reference standard (e.g. toluene or water), from which the absolute scattering is known, can be used. The calculation of the molecular weight and/or the aggregation number of particles is done by determining the mean scattering intensity in the forward direction of the particles under consideration. Having small particles compared with the wavelength, e.g. proteins or micelles mixed with a small amount of large aggregates, one is confronted with the problem that these impurities normally contain only a very small part of the sample mass, brit contribute strongly to the measured signal. To separate the intensity scattered from the large impurities or aggregates we use the additional information available from a dynamic light scattering measurement. The areas in the intensity distribution function, which can be calculated by inverse Laplace transformation of the field correlation function, are directly related to the intensity of the particular populations. The measured intensity of the whole sample is then reduced by the peak area of the large aggregates or impurities. This intensity correction procedure is the central part of this contribution. Simulations of bimodal size distributions and application to experimental data for bimodal latex mixtures prove that this intensity correction procedure gives very good agreement between theoretical predictions and measured data over a wide range of relative intensities and sizes.