Dynamic light scattering based on low-cost components

Abstract

A dynamic light scattering (DLS) instrument has been assembled using low-cost components. This setup includes an inexpensive laser diode, a silicon photomultiplier including amplifier electronics, a digital oscilloscope, and a regular computer. A set of latex nanoparticles with different sizes has been used to fully characterize the instrument for multiple acquisition configurations. In addition, results were compared to those obtained by transmission electron microscopy and a commercial DLS equipment including gold and iron oxide nanoparticles. The size measurements performed with the DLS instrument resulted very robust for multiple acquisition configurations with and error typically below 1%. A very good agreement was obtained when comparing the results with the values obtained with reference techniques. Therefore, accurate and reproducible size measurements can be performed with the DLS instrument developed in this work for a wide range of nanoparticle sizes and materials while significantly reducing the cost.