

FOLLOWUS
State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices & South China Advanced Institute for Soft Matter Science and Technology, Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Energy and Information Polymer Materials, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China
yinpc@scut.edu.cn
Received:23 July 2025,
Accepted:01 September 2025,
Published Online:22 December 2025,
Published:2025-10
Scan QR Code
Xue, B. H.; Liu, Y.; Yin, P. C. The monitoring of anisotropic tracer nanoparticles by depolarized dynamic light scattering for micro-rheology with improved contrast and accuracy. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-025-3445-0
Bing-Hui Xue, Yuan Liu, Pan-Chao Yin. The Monitoring of Anisotropic Tracer Nanoparticles by Depolarized Dynamic Light Scattering for Micro-rheology with Improved Contrast and Accuracy[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2025, 431-7.
Xue, B. H.; Liu, Y.; Yin, P. C. The monitoring of anisotropic tracer nanoparticles by depolarized dynamic light scattering for micro-rheology with improved contrast and accuracy. Chinese J. Polym. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-025-3445-0 DOI:
Bing-Hui Xue, Yuan Liu, Pan-Chao Yin. The Monitoring of Anisotropic Tracer Nanoparticles by Depolarized Dynamic Light Scattering for Micro-rheology with Improved Contrast and Accuracy[J/OL]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2025, 431-7. DOI: 10.1007/s10118-025-3445-0.
Compared to mechanical rheology
micro-rheology (µR) can probe the viscoelasticity of soft matter non-invasively with spatial resolution and broad temporal coverage; however
the measurement quality is undermined by inter
ference from the structural and dynamic inhomogeneity of the tested media. Herein
gold nanorods are dispersed in tested media as tracer particles
and their diffusive dynamics are monitored by depolarized dynamic light scattering for the analysis of the rheological properties of the tested media
as the rotational/translational dynamics of tracers can be converted to shear modulus
via
the generalized Stokes-Einstein relation. Because of their strong optical scattering to the laser and the polarization of incident light
the contrast in the dynamics of gold nanorods over the media can be enhanced
rendering the fast and accurate measurement of rheological properties. The method was verified for applications in broad types of substrates
including ergodic systems such as polymer solutions
silica suspensions
non-ergodic gel systems
and biological fluids such as plasma. The critical experimental parameters
for example
tracer size and scattering angle range
are studied for their impact on the measurement quality
and they can be systematically optimized for feasible and practical applications of the developed µR method.
Mason, T. G., Weitz, D. A. Optical measurements of frequency-dependent linear viscoelastic moduli of complex fluids. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1995 , 74 , 1250−1253..
Pine, D. J., Weitz, D. A., Chaikin, P. M., Herbolzheimer, E. Diffusing wave spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1988 , 60 , 1134−1137..
Dasgupta, B. R., Tee, S. Y., Crocker, J. C., Frisken, B. J., Weitz, D. A. Microrheology of polyethylene oxide using diffusing wave spectroscopy and single scattering. Phys. Rev. E 2002 , 65 , 051505..
Cheng, Z., Mason, T. G. Rotational diffusion microrheology. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2003 , 90 , 018304..
Andablo-Reyes, E., Díaz-Leyva, P., Arauz-Lara, J. L. Microrheology from rotational diffusion of colloidal particles. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2005 , 94 , 106001..
Qazvini, N. T., Bolisetty, S., Adamcik, J., Mezzenga, R. Self-healing fish gelatin/sodium montmorillonite biohybrid coacervates: structural and rheological characterization. Biomacromolecules 2012 , 13 , 2136−2147..
Berret, J. F. Local viscoelasticity of living cells measured by rotational magnetic spectroscopy. Nat. Commun. 2016 , 7 , 10134..
Squires, T. M., Mason, T. G. Fluid mechanics of microrheology. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 2010 , 42 , 413−438..
Schmidt, R. F., Kiefer, H., Dalgliesh, R., Gradzielski, M., Netz, R. R. Nanoscopic interfacial hydrogel viscoelasticity revealed from comparison of macroscopic and microscopic rheology. Nano Lett. 2024 , 24 , 4758−4765..
Gutiérrez-Sosa, C., Merino-González, A., Sánchez, R., Kozina, A., Díaz-Leyva, P. Microscopic viscoelasticity of polymer solutions and gels observed from translation and rotation of anisotropic colloid probes. Macromolecules 2018 , 51 , 9203−9212..
Cai, P. C., Krajina, B. A., Kratochvil, M. J., Zou, L., Zhu, A., Burgener, E. B., Bollyky, P. L., Milla, C. E., Webber, M. J., Spakowitz, A. J., Heilshorn, S. C. Dynamic light scattering microrheology for soft and living materials. Soft Matter 2021 , 17 , 1929−1939..
Molaei, M., Atefi, E., Crocker, J. C. Nanoscale rheology and anisotropic diffusion using single gold nanorod probes. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2018 , 120 , 118002..
[Berne, B. J., Pecora, R. Dynamic light scattering: With applications to chemistry, biology, and physics . Dover, New York, 1976 ..
Xue, B., Liu, Y., Tian, Y., Yin, P. The coupling of rotational and translational dynamics for rapid diffusion of nanorods in macromolecular networks. Nat. Commun. 2024 , 15 , 6502..
Balog, S., Rodriguez-Lorenzo, L., Monnier, C. A., Michen, B., Obiols-Rabasa, M., Casal-Dujat, L., Rothen-Rutishauser, B., Petri-Fink, A., Schurtenberger, P. Dynamic depolarized light scattering of small roundplasmonic nanoparticles: when imperfection is only perfect. J. Phys. Chem. C 2014 , 118 , 17968−17974..
Ortega, A., Garcı́a de la Torre, J. Hydrodynamic properties of rodlike and disklike particles in dilute solution. J. Chem. Phys. 2003 , 119 , 9914−9919..
Mason, T. G. Estimating the viscoelastic moduli of complex fluids using the generalized stokes-einstein equation. Rheol Acta 2000 , 39 , 371−378..
Pusey, P. N., Van Megan, W. Dynamic light scattering by non-ergodic media. Phys. A 1989 , 157 , 705−741..
Usuelli, M., Cao, Y., Bagnani, M., Handschin, S., Nyström, G., Mezzenga, R. Probing the structure of filamentous nonergodic gels by dynamic light scattering. Macromolecules 2020 , 53 , 5950−5956..
[Rubinstein, M., Colby, R. H. Polymer physics . Oxford university press New York, 2003 ..
Cooper, E. C., Johnson, P., Donald, A. M. Probe diffusion in polymer solutions in the dilute/semi dilute crossover regime: 1. poly(ethylene oxide). Polymer 1991 , 32 , 2815−2822..
Xue, B. H., Lai, Y. Y., Cai, L. K., Liu, Y., Yin, J. F., Yin, P. C. Emergent research trends on the structural relaxation dynamics of molecular clusters: from structure-property relationship to new function prediction. Acc. Chem. Res. 2024 , 57 , 3057−3067..
Matsumoto, A., Zhang, C., Scheffold, F., Shen, A. Q. Microrheological approach for probing the entanglement properties of polyelectrolyte solutions. ACS Macro Lett. 2021 , 11 , 84−90..
Xue, B., Liu, Y., Sun, W., Liang, Y., Yin, P. The spatiotemporal studies of the salt-hardening effect of the coacervates of nano-ions for aqueous super-ionic electrolytes with enhanced electrochemical stability. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 2025 , 696 , 137898..
Lai, Y. Y., Yang, J. S., Cai, L. K., Zhang, M. X., He, X. F., Yu, H. T., Li, M., Ning, G. H., Yin, P. C. Precise modulation of surface layer dynamics for tunable flowability and gas absorption properties of molecular porous liquids. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2023 , 33 , 2210122..
Xue, B., Lai, Y., Liu, Y., Li, M., Li, X., Yin, P. The counterion-mediated controllable coacervation of nano-ions with polyelectrolytes. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 , 641 , 853−860..
Xue, B. H., Wei, L. F., Yin, J. F., Yang, J. S., Yin, P. C. Particle topology-regulated relaxation dynamics in cluster-ordering. J. Chem. Phys. 2024 , 160 , 154902..
Hess, M., Gratz, M., Remmer, H., Webers, S., Landers, J., Borin, D., Ludwig, F., Wende, H ., Odenbach, S., Tschope, A., Schmidt, A. M. Scale-dependent particle diffusivity and apparent viscosity in polymer solutions as probed by dynamic magnetic nanorheology. Soft Matter 2020 , 16 , 7562−7575..
Krajina, B. A., Tropini, C., Zhu, A., DiGiacomo, P., Sonnenburg, J. L., Heilshorn, S. C., Spakowitz, A. J. Dynamic light scattering microrheology reveals multiscale viscoelasticity of polymer gels and precious biological materials. ACS Cent. Sci. 2017 , 3 , 1294−1303..
Brust, M., Schaefer, C., Doerr, R., Pan, L., Garcia, M., Arratia, P. E., Wagner, C. Rheology of human blood plasma: viscoelastic versus newtonian behavior. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2013 , 110 , 078305..
Beris, A. N., Horner, J. S., Jariwala, S., Armstrong, M. J., Wagner, N. J. Recent advances in blood rheology: a review. Soft Matter 2021 , 17 , 10591−10613..
Rodrigues, T., Mota, R., Gales, L., Campo-Deaño, L. Understanding the complex rheology of human blood plasma. J. Rheol. 2022 , 66 , 761−774..
0
Views
0
Downloads
0
CSCD
Publicity Resources
Related Articles
Related Author
Related Institution
京公网安备11010802046900号