Optical properties of aggregate clusters

Measurement of colloidal phenomena during flow through refractive index matched porous media

Colloidal phenomena in porous media, natural or engineered, are important in a breadth of science and technology applications, but fundamental understanding is hampered by the difficulty in measuring colloid deposit morphology in situ. To partially address this need, this paper describes a static light scattering apparatus using a flow cell filled with refractive index matched (RIM) porous media, allowing real-time measurement of colloidal phenomena as a function of depth within the flow cell. A laser interacts with the colloids in the pore space and their structures, but not with the RIM media. The intensity of scattered light is measured as a function of scattering angle, which allows characterization of colloid deposit morphology as a fractal dimension and a radius of gyration. In parallel, fluid discharge rate and pressure drop are recorded to determine permeability, a key parameter for any application involving flow through porous media. This apparatus should prove useful in any application requiring characterization of colloidal phenomena within porous media. Additionally, this paper describes how to use granular Nafion as RIM porous media.

Useful multivariate kinetic analysis: Size determination based on cystein-induced aggregation of gold nanoparticles

This study describes spectrometric monitored kinetic processes to determine the size of citrate-capped Au nanoparticles (Au NPs) based on aggregation induced by l-cysteine (l-Cys) as a molecular linker. The Au NPs association process is thoroughly dependent on pH, concentration and size of nanoparticles. Size dependency of aggregation inspirits to determine the average diameters of Au NPs. For this aim the procedure is achieved in aqueous medium at pH 7 (phosphate buffer), and multivariate data including kinetic spectra of Au NPs are collected during aggregation process. Subsequently partial least squares (PLS) modeling is carried out analyzing the obtained data. The model is built on the basis of relation between the kinetics behavior of aggregation and different Au NPs sizes. Training the model was performed using latent variables (LVs) of the original data. The analytical performance of the model was characterized by relative standard error. The proposed method was applied to determination of size in unknown samples. The predicted sizes of unknown samples that obtained by the introduced method are interestingly in agreement with the sizes measured by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) measurement.

Surface fractals in liposome aggregation

In this work, the aggregation of charged liposomes induced by magnesium is investigated. Static and dynamic light scattering, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and cryotransmission electron microscopy are used as experimental techniques. In particular, multiple intracluster scattering is reduced to a negligible amount using a cross-correlation light scattering scheme. The analysis of the cluster structure, probed by means of static light scattering, reveals an evolution from surface fractals to mass fractals with increasing magnesium concentration. Cryotransmission electron microscopy micrographs of the aggregates are consistent with this interpretation. In addition, a comparative analysis of these results with those previously reported in the presence of calcium suggests that the different hydration energy between lipid vesicles when these divalent cations are present plays a fundamental role in the cluster morphology. This suggestion is also supported by infrared spectroscopy data. The kinetics of the aggregation processes is also analyzed through the time evolution of the mean diffusion coefficient of the aggregates.

Aggregation of liposomes induced by calcium: a structural and kinetic study

In this work, the calcium-induced aggregation of phosphatidylserine liposomes is probed by means of the analysis of the kinetics of such process as well as the aggregate morphology. This novel characterization of liposome aggregation involves the use of static and dynamic light-scattering techniques to obtain kinetic exponents and fractal dimensions. For salt concentrations larger than 5mM, a diffusion-limited aggregation regime is observed and the Brownian kernel properly describes the time evolution of the diffusion coefficient. For slow kinetics, a slightly modified multiple contact kernel is required. In any case, a time evolution model based on the numerical resolution of Smoluchowski's equation is proposed in order to establish a theoretical description for the aggregating system. Such a model provides an alternative procedure to determine the dimerization constant, which might supply valuable information about interaction mechanisms between phospholipid vesicles.

The Effect of Molecular Weight of Nonadsorbing Polymer on the Structure of Depletion-Induced Flocs

This work explores the structural compactness of depletion-induced particle flocs with respect to the molecular weight of nonadsorbing polymer flocculants. Small-angle static light scattering was used to monitor the structural characteristics of the flocs, which were formed by the addition of nonadsorbing poly(acrylic acids) to a stable colloidal polystyrene latex dispersion. It was found that the floc mass fractal dimension, considered to be a measure of structural compactness, was dependent upon both the molecular weight and the concentration of the polyacid. In particular, reducing the molecular weight of the polymer at a fixed polyacid concentration resulted in higher mass fractal dimensions, despite the highly polydisperse nature of the polymer samples. This structural behavior was attributed to the lower particle sticking efficiencies upon collision. This reduced sticking ability is the result of the shallowing in the secondary potential energy well with decreasing polymer chain length, which was directly supported by atomic force microscopy data. Our results suggest that the formation of a shallower attraction well with a lower molecular weight nonadsorbing polymer is the result of the insufficiency of the increased osmotic pressure to counter-balance the short-ranged nature of the depletion interaction.

Estimation of fractal dimension of colloidal gels in the presence of multiple scattering

Colloidal dispersions of fluorinated polymer particles with a refractive index very close to that of water, have been used to investigate the effect of multiple scattering on the estimated fractal dimension of colloidal gels, at high-particle volume fractions. The extent of multiple scattering was varied by using cuvettes of different internal diameters, from 3 to 18 mm. Three gelation systems with different sizes and volume fractions of primary particles have been characterized by static light scattering SLS. The obtained results indicate that multiple scattering affects only the magnitude of the scattered radiation, but not the estimated fractal dimension of the gels. This result confirms the conclusion of the theoretical study reported by Chen et al. [Phys. Rev. B 37, 5232 (1988)]. As a further confirmation, the same gels have been formed in a specially designed cell, with only 0.1 mm thickness (where multiple scattering is negligible) and characterized using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS). It is found that the fractal dimension estimated from SANS measurements, without multiple scattering, is the same as that estimated from SLS measurements, in the presence of substantial multiple scattering.

Spectroturbidimetry of fractal clusters: test of density correlation function cutoff

I have measured the relative increase in turbidity τ/τ(t = 0) as a function of wavelength exponent w = -∂(log τ)/∂(log λ) in the process of the reaction-limited cluster-cluster aggregation of polystyrene latex with a particle diameter of 90 nm. It is shown that this dependence is not sensitive to particular details of sample preparation and is described for independent measurements by one master curve. Theoretical calculations made in the single-scattering and Berry-Percival mean-field theory approximations considering small-angle light-scattering effects and cluster polydispersity also demonstrate that this dependence is sufficiently universal and its shape can be practically determined solely by the choice of the density correlation function cutoff model. Comparing the experimental τ/τ(0) = ƒ(w) curves with calculated theoretical plots I conclude that the Gaussian cutoff model is the best among all the models of the exponential family. This is in accord with a previous finding [Langmuir 8, 2964-2069 (1992)] that was obtained by using angular scattering from diffusion-limited cluster-cluster aggregation soot aggregates.

T-matrix approach for calculating local fields around clusters of rotated spheroids

A T-matrix formalism is used to calculate local electric fields around clusters of prolate spheroids in the long-wavelength regime. The calculations are performed as a function of interparticle distance as well as angle of orientation. The observed red shifts in the resonant wavelengths of the characteristic peaks are shown to obey an exponential relationship as a function of interparticle separation and a sinusoidal relationship as a function of angle of rotation of the spheroid. The behavior of the cluster is discussed and the two effects of separation and rotation are compared.