Multiple scattering effects on intercept, size, polydispersity index, and intensity for parallel (VV) and...

Dynamic light scattering (DLS) is well established for rapid size, polydispersity, and size distribution determination of colloidal samples. While there are limitations in size range, resolution, and concentration, the technique has found ubiquitous applications from molecules to particles. With the ease of use of today's commercial DLS instrumentation comes an inherent danger of misinterpretation or misapplication at the borderlines of suitability. In this paper, we show how comparison of different polarization components can help ascertain the presence of unwanted multiple scattering, which can lead to false conclusions about a sample's mean size and polydispersity. We find that the contribution of multiple scattering events effectively reduces both the measured scattering intensity and the apparent size from the autocorrelation function. The intercept of the correlation function may serve as an indicator of relative strength of single to multiple scattering. Furthermore, the abundance of single scattering events at measurement positions close to the cell wall results in an apparent increase in uniformity yielding a lower polydispersity index which is more representative of the physical system.