Effect of electric field on Tyndall scattering

Abstract

The study of the action of an electric field on the scattering intensity of sols has thus led to interesting results. The study is useful in determining the shape of the particles. The present technique would be supplementary to the studies of double refraction, in that the latter cannot be conveniently investigated in a highly scattering system. With slightly conducting sols, large fields can be used so as to produce saturation effects. Under such conditions, the use of rotating fields would bring about a unique orientation of the discs. A superposition of two A.C. fields of different cycles at right angles to each other would have the same effect as the circular field. The use of elliptical fields would reveal any want of equality of the two axes in the plane of discs of flat particles. The technique itself is simpler than the flow technique. Since there is often a large difference in the dielectric constant between the particles and the medium, the orientation is marked even with small fields, and the electric field is thus more powerful than the magnetic field in bringing about orientation.