SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION OF SIZE DISTRIBUTION AND REFRACTIVE-INDEX OF COLLOIDAL PARTICLES FROM STATIC LIGHT-SCATTERING EXPERIMENTS

Static light-scattering experiments can be used to determine particle sizes in the range from 50 nm up to several micrometers. The relative refractive index of the particles is required in computation procedures to obtain the true size distribution. In cases where the relative refractive index is unknown, it can be determined from the scattering data. The corresponding technique is presented in this paper. Determination of the relative refractive index is possible even in the presence of scattered light, reflected from the walls of the sample holder, but it gradually becomes impossible, if the symmetry of the particles becomes increasingly nonspherical. Simulated and measured data are used to demonstrate the performance of the computation procedure. © 1993 Academic Press. All rights reserved.