Investigation of structure factors in dense colloidal suspensions using frequency domain photon migration: polydisperse systems

Abstract

Frequency domain photon migration (FDPM) technique was employed to investigate the structure factors of dense, polydisperse colloidal suspensions. The angle-integrated structure factors, 〈 S( q)〉, extracted from FDPM measurements of scattering properties at volume fractions ranging from 0.05 to 0.4, were compared with the values predicted from the polydisperse hard sphere Percus–Yevick (HSPY) model, as well as decoupling approximation (DA) and local monodisperse approximation (LMA) models that incorporated independently measured particle size information. Results show that the polydisperse HSPY model is the most suitable for accounting for particle interactions which predominately arise from volume exclusion effects. Furthermore, the influence of size polydispersity upon 〈 S( q)〉 is most significant at high volume fractions. The static structure factors at small wave vector q, S(0), were also assessed from dual wavelength FDPM measurements by using the small wave number approximation as well as the local monodisperse approximation. The measured S(0) agrees well with the values predicted by the polydisperse HSPY model.