Implementation and Evaluation of a Cost-Competitive Open-Source DLS-Type Measurement System for Micro and Nanoparticles

Micro and nanostructures, particularly, nanoparticles (NPs), are becoming increasingly important for the development of new materials. The size of the NPs is a crucial parameter that determines many of their properties. Therefore, it is very important to determine it accurately. Several sizing techniques are available that offer high precision but are limited by relatively high costs, slow operation, and the need for skilled operators. This work proposes a cost-competitive and open-source approach to palliate this situation. We introduce a Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) setup which relies on the analysis of the interaction of light with the particles in a suspension. Here we report in detail the development of such a DLS system for measuring the hydrodynamic diameter of micro and nanostructures in liquid solutions. Our results demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed setup by sizing nanoparticles from 3nm with an error of 15 %, to 10 micrometer particles with an error of 3 %.