Feasibility of sizing metallic nanoparticles in concentrated suspensions from effective optical properties

摘要

We explore using measurements of the effective refractive index of a metallic nanofluid to estimate the size of the particles in it. We assume the nanofluid consists of spherical metallic nanoparticles suspended in a transparent base liquid and discuss a way of measuring the real and imaginary parts of the effective refractive index for concentrated nanofluids to about 1% in particles' volume concentration. Specifically, we consider the case of copper nanoparticles suspended in water. We propose an unambiguous effective optical parameter as a candidate to evidence the particle size, potentially in real time. Limitations due to dependent scattering effects in concentrated nanofluids are briefly stated.