PCS-100 (Malvern)

Dynamic light scattering (also known as photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) and quasi-elastic light scattering (QELS)) measures the time-dependent fluctuations in the intensity of scattered light that occurs because particles in liquid are undergoing Brownian motion. The velocity of this Brownian motion is correlated to the particle size. The particles necessarily have to be smaller than 1 µm.

The PCS is used in many applications such as the characterization of solutions of polymers and macromolecules, in pharmaceutical applications, stability studies of nanosuspensions, etc.

Besides the simplicity and rapidity of PCS the biggest advantage, compared to laser diffraction techniques, is that less information about the particles and medium (Refractive indexes, etc.) are needed to accurately calculate sizes out of the measured data.