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Electro‐optic decay analysis for polydisperse systems
Author(s) -
Schweitzer J.,
Jennings B. R.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
biopolymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.556
H-Index - 125
eISSN - 1097-0282
pISSN - 0006-3525
DOI - 10.1002/bip.1972.360110510
Subject(s) - electric field , curvature , chemistry , logarithm , optical rotation , particle (ecology) , distribution function , colloid , diffusion , yield (engineering) , optics , molecular physics , mechanics , thermodynamics , physics , geometry , mathematical analysis , mathematics , quantum mechanics , oceanography , geology
The decay curves of electro‐optic transients are generally used to measure the rotary diffusion contants (D) of colloidal particles in suspension or biopolymers in solution. Analysis usually is made by plotting the logarithm of the decay as a function of time, t . Curvature in such plots the presence of several values of D and hence a distribution of particle sizes. In this case, analysis of the complete curve to yield the distribution is severely restricted by lack of precision in the experimental data. The most reliable and reproducible part of the decay curve is the initial ( t =0)slope. This paper develops theory for the initial slope for dilute suspensions of long thin cylinders with various electrical properties. It is shown that the inital slope depends not only on the particle‐size distribution and electric field strength, but also on the nature of the electrical properties of the molecules. Futhermore, for an identical polydisperse system. transient electric birefringence, electric optical rotation, and electric dichroism on the one hand, and transient electric light scattering on the other, yield different initial slopes and hence apperently different values for D . These important conclusions have not been appereciated in previous studies and indicate the need for caution when comparing data from different experimental methods. I11ustrative calculations are presented for a polydisperse system of long thin cylinders having a normal distribution in lengths, but of uniform diameter. Some preliminary measurement support the theory.