Size Distribution of Core-Shell Latex Particles by Static Light Scattering. Theoretical Simulations

CLEMENTI, L.A.; GUGLIOTTA, L.M.; VEGA, J.R.

Simposio; V Simposio Argentino – Chileno de Polímeros - ARCHIPOL ‘09; 2009

Static light scattering (SLS) is often used for measuring the particle size distribution (PSD) of dilute coloidal dispersions. For optically-homogeneous spherical particles, the scattering phenomenon is modeled on the basis of Mie theory (Bohren and Huffman, 1983). From SLS measurements, the PSD estimation requires to solve a linear ill-conditioned inverse problem (ICIP), and to this effect regularization methods are typically used (Tikhonov and Arsenin, 1977). For non-homogeneous spherical particle systems with concentric core-shell morphology, the scattering phenomenon can be modeled by the Aden-Kerker theory (Bohren and Huffman, 1983). In this work, the PSD of a polymeric core-shell colloidal system is estimated through two different methods. Both methods are evaluated with two simulated examples corresponding to a core-shell colloidal system of spherical polystyrene (PS) cores covered by polyacrylic acid (PA) shells, dispersed in water.