Depolarized Light Scattering Spectroscopy and Polymer Characterization.
01 January 1986
Light scattering has long been established as a technique to measure the molecular weight and radius of gyration of polymer molecules. For certain cases depolarized light scattering can supply additional information about the molecules in solution. In the present paper we present the theory of static and dynamic depolarized light spectroscopy and illustrate it with two examples of interesting particles in solution. From the static intensity measured as a function of angle the length of rodlike molecules can be determined. From dynamic light scattering the translational self-diffusion coefficient and the rotational diffusion coefficient are obtained. These quantities can then be interpreted in terms of a major semiaxis length and an axial ratio for the molecule or particle using the Perrin equations.