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The determination of the scattering density distribution of polydisperse solutions by contrast variation: a neutron scattering study of ferritin
Author(s) -
Stuhrmann H. B.,
Duee E. D.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
journal of applied crystallography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.429
H-Index - 162
ISSN - 1600-5767
DOI - 10.1107/s0021889875011211
Subject(s) - scattering , neutron scattering , root mean square , biological small angle scattering , small angle neutron scattering , chemistry , saturation (graph theory) , scattering length , molecular physics , materials science , physics , optics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , combinatorics
From the dependence of zero‐angle scattering of polydisperse solutions on the scattering density of the solvent, information about the mean scattering density and the width of the scattering density distribution of different dissolved molecules can be obtained. This method has been tried with a commercial solution of native ferritin. The root‐mean‐square deviation of the scattering density was 0.35 × 10 10 cm −2 with respect to the mean value of 3.15 × 10 10 cm −2 . From these data the mean saturation of native ferritin with iron is estimated to about 0.6 and the root‐mean‐square fluctuation of the iron contents of different ferritin molecules to about 0.4. The neutron scattering curves agree with the results from X‐ray small‐angle scattering.