Laser light scattering study of polyacrylamide gels

Abstract

AbstractLaser light scattering experiments with polyacrylamide gels containing diffusing bovine plasma albumin are described. Complete heterodyne beating has not been assumed, and an account is given of a novel method for finding the degree of spectral broadening by scanning angles of scatter while measuring the temporal autocorrelation function. Results obtained by this method for polyacrylamide gels and un‐cross‐linked solutions in the absence of diffusing protein, are compared with those of other authors. In the presence of the protein there is a complex interaction between the diffusion coefficient of the protein and the coefficient associated with the diffusing fluctuations in segment density of polyacrylamide. The diffusing protein dominates at low gel concentrations, and the gel density fluctuations dominates at high gel concentrations. It is proposed that the protein preferentially occupies the less dense regions of the gel, so that at low gel concentrations, where it diffuses faster than the gel fluctuations, it tends to cancel them out, whereas at high gel concentrations where the protein is highly impeded by the gel structure, it tends to be carried along by the gel density fluctuations.