Light Scattering by Commercial Sugar Solutions

Using a direct measure of scattered light, it was found that commercial sugar solutions scatter light predominantly in a forward direction. The scattering at angles less than 30° was as much as one hundred times that at right angles to the incident beam. It was found that the light scattering by commercial sugar solutions is inversely dependent on wavelength to a power of between 2 and 3, and that severe multiple scattering occurs when the turbidity of the solution is larger than 2×10(−1)cm(−1) at 436 mµ. The scattering of commercial sugar solutions is compared with that of highly purified sucrose. A method is discussed that will enable a good approximation of the turbidity of commercial sugar solutions to be made from a single forward scattering measurement at an angle of about 20° with respect to the incident light beam. A correction for scattered light in transmission measurements of these solutions is also introduced.