Y. Georgalis et al., Cluster formation in aqueous electrolyte solutions observed by dynamic light scattering, J PHYS CH B, 104(15), 2000, pp. 3405-3406
Using dynamic light scattering we show that aqueous super- to undersaturate
d solutions of NaCl, (NH4)(2)SO4, and Na-citrate contain submicrometer size
clusters at room temperature. The particle size distributions deduced by L
aplace inversion of the spectra contain two predominant components. The sma
ller components with radii below 1 nm are attributed to mixtures of solvate
d ions and the larger with radii between 50-500 nm to ion clusters. Knowled
ge of the mesoscale structure of concentrated electrolyte solutions may be
necessary to describe effective protein-protein interactions which are of i
mportance in biochemical applications such as protein crystallization.