Quantitative flow dichroism. I. Correction for disorientation in a solution of rods

Flow dichroism suffers from two ambiguities which have prevented it from being a useful analytical technique. One is imperfect particle orientation, and the other is the unknown importance of form dichroism. This paper presents a method for calculating from experimental data the dichroism which would be observed from a solution in which all rods were aligned parallel to one another. The procedure utilizes anisotropic light scattering as an independent measure of particle orientation and requires only that the solute particles may be approximated by thin rods.