The Monitoring of Anisotropic Tracer Nanoparticles by Depolarized Dynamic Light Scattering for Micro-rheology with Improved Contrast and Accuracy

Bing-Hui Xue; Yuan Liu; Pan-Chao Yin

doi:10.1007/s10118-025-3445-0

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The Monitoring of Anisotropic Tracer Nanoparticles by Depolarized Dynamic Light Scattering for Micro-rheology with Improved Contrast and Accuracy

Special Topic: Functional Gels | Updated：2026-05-30

- The Monitoring of Anisotropic Tracer Nanoparticles by Depolarized Dynamic Light Scattering for Micro-rheology with Improved Contrast and Accuracy
- Chinese Journal of Polymer Science Vol. 44, Issue 6, Pages: 1760-1766(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  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
- Author bio：
  
  yinpc@scut.edu.cn
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1007/s10118-025-3445-0
  CLC：
- Received：23 July 2025，
  
  Accepted：01 September 2025，
  
  Online First：22 December 2025，
  
  Published：05 June 2026
- Accepted：
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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. 2026, 44, 1760–1766

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]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(6): 1760-1766.
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. 2026, 44, 1760–1766 DOI： 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]. Chinese Journal of Polymer Science, 2026, 44(6): 1760-1766. DOI： 10.1007/s10118-025-3445-0.

摘要

This study develops a micro-rheology method using gold nanorods as probes monitored

via

depolarized dynamic light scattering. It enables fast

accurate viscoelasticity measurements across diverse soft materials

from polymer solutions to biological fluids.

Abstract

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 interference 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.

关键词

Keywords

references

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