Thermophysical properties of fluids from dynamic light scattering

In a continuous development for more than three decades, dynamic light scat tering (DLS) has evolved into a versatile and powerful technique for the de termination of transport and other thermophysical properties of fluids. The success is founded on its application in a macroscopic thermodynamic equil ibrium, i.e., without the need for employing external gradients, to determi ne a large variety of properties, which can be derived, in some instances e ven simultaneously, by an appropriate experimental approach and a correspon ding signal analysis. The principles, essential features, and variants of t he technique are reviewed and a survey on the determination of various desi red transport and thermophysical properties is given, both for the applicat ion of light scattering from hulk fluids and for the variant of surface lig ht scattering (SLS). The stage of development and the corresponding uncerta inties are discussed for the measurement of the individual quantities, and the performance of the method is demonstrated by representative experimenta l results for relevant fluids.