Static light scattering is a technique in physical chemistry that measures the intensity of the scattered light to obtain the average molecular weight Mw of a macromolecule like a polymer or a protein. Measurement of the scattering intensity at many angles allows calculation of the root mean square radius, also called the radius of gyration Rg. By measuring the scattering intensity for many samples of various concentrations, the second virial coefficient A2, can be calculated.
For static light scattering experiments, a high intensity monochromatic light, usually a laser, is launched in a solution containing the macromolecules. One or many detectors are used to measure the scattering intensity at one or many angles.
To measure the weight average molecular weight directly without calibration from the light scattering intensity, the laser intensity, the quantum efficiency of the detector, and the full scattering volume and solid angle of the detector needs to be known. Since this is impractical, all commercial instruments are calibrated using a strong, known scatterer like toluene since the Rayleigh Ratio of toluene and a few other solvents were measured using an absolute light scattering instrument.
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