Microrheology of polymeric solutions using x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy

We demonstrate the technique of XPCS microrheology on opaque polymeric solutions (1-20% w/w) using colloidal silica probes. The short time decay of the intensity correlation function provides the mean square displacement (MSD) of the colloidal probes. The MSDs of the probes are subsequently transformed using the generalized Stokes-Einstein equation, allowing the linear viscoelastic spectra of a biopolymer (gellan) and a synthetic polyelectrolyte (polystyrene sulfonate, PSS) to be calculated over two decades of frequency. MSDs can be measured that are two orders of magnitude smaller than those possible with video particle tracking microrheology, with a sensitivity of ∼10 nm s(-1) for displacements of ∼nms. The XPCS data for water, glycerol and PSS combs are in agreement with video particle tracking microrheology experiments performed at lower polymer concentrations.