Concentrated, polydisperse solutions of colloidal particles. Light scattering and sedimentation of hard-sphere mixture

Abstract

The usefulness of the hard-sphere model in characterizing polydispersity in concentrated colloidal solutions is stressed. A recently derived equation for (∂ρi/∂μj)μ is used to give a simpler route for application to light scattering and sedimentation in multicomponent and polydisperse systems. Some light-scattering intensity calculations are performed for a log-normal distribution of hard-sphere diameters. Special attention is given to the contribution of fluctuations in the osmotic value to the lightscattering intensity of polydisperse systems.