Characterization of Turbid Colloidal Suspensions Using Light Scattering Techniques Combined with Cross-Correlation Methods.

The ability to characterize colloidal suspensions by means of dynamic light scattering is in general limited to systems with negligible contributions from multiple scattering. For larger particle sizes with high scattering contrast this immediately limits the technique to very low concentrations. A promising solution of this problem is to suppress multiple scattering in dynamic light scattering experiments using cross-correlation schemes. Based on these considerations we have constructed a so-called 3D cross-correlation experiment with which we are able to characterize extremely turbid suspensions. We have measured monomodal and bimodal suspensions of latex particles of relatively high volume fraction. The results show clearly that we are able to measure the dynamic structure factor in concentrated polydisperse suspensions with dynamic light scattering. Combining static and dynamic light scattering measurements for characterizing turbid suspensions the single scattering particle form factor and also the static structure factor can be evaluated. We demonstrate that the implementation of a 3D cross-correlation scheme is a powerful method in suppressing multiple scattering contributions in light scattering experiments and opens a wide field of characterization of colloidal dispersions with high turbidity without having to resort to high dilution. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.