Patent ID: 8451434
Filing Date: 2013-05-28
Classification: G01N,G01S

Abstract:
1. A zeta potential measurement system comprising: a cell having a cell wall and bottom for holding suspended particles; an optical measurement probe having a probe tip comprising a transparent and conducting thin film coating which prevents ionic current from accumulating charge on said probe tip, and wherein said optical measurement probe is inserted through said cell wall such that said probe tip is in fluid communication with a sample; a counter electrode inserted through said cell wall opposite to said optical measurement probe; a laser source which is disposed so as to deliver light to said optical measurement probe via an optical directional coupler and optical waveguide; wherein said optical measurement probe focuses said light onto a front surface of said probe tip, such that said light reflected from said front surface of said optical measurement probe and light backscattered from particles in said sample are collected by the probe tip, and thereafter focused to said optical waveguide and delivered through said optical directional coupler to a photodetector; an electrical output of said photodetector is connected to a filtering and amplification module, wherein an analog output of said filtering and amplification module is connected to an analog-to-digital converter, wherein said analog-to-digital converter creates a digital data stream which is stored in a first memory; and a computer or microprocessor which calculates the frequency power spectrum from said digital data stream which is stored in a first memory and stores said frequency power spectrum in a second memory, wherein said first memory and said second memory can be either the same or different.