100 Nano-Stories: Radiative Transport Equation!

Episode #59: Light Scattering Overview!

Carlos Manuel Jarquín Sánchez
3 min readApr 4, 2021

Preface! ✨

It’s your favorite material science & nanotechnology enthusiast! Finally, we can begin our dive into Transparent Aerogels! If you need an explanation of what we will be talking about, check out this article on transparent aerogels!

Don’t worry, it’s only a 4-minute read! 😄

To calculate transparency, we can use the radiative transfer equation to calculate the haze and diffuse transmittance of the transparent aerogels, with the combination of their properties (hydrophobicity, optics, porosity, etc.)

But what is this “Radiative Transfer Equation”, Carlos?

Radiative Transfer Equation! 💡

Definition! 🔑

The Radiative Transfer Equation is a theory/equation to describe radiative energy transfer in a medium/substance. In this case, the medium is the transparent aerogel.

In the transparent aerogel, we are trying to calculate the specific intensity of the diffuse transmittance & haze.

The Radiative Transfer Equation is the intensity of the light we receive on the other side of the aerogel (in terms of Diffuse Transmittance) and the absorption of the light.

Equation! 🔑

This is the Radiative Transfer Equation!

Don’t worry, it’s not that bad! All the equation is saying that any change in the specific intensity of the light along the length of the aerogel is a function of the diffuse transmittance minus the absorption scattering of the light as it passes through the particles in the transparent aerogel!

Closing Thoughts! 💭

I know, this was a short article, but I need to give you the equation to ponder with you for a moment!

To explain this to you, we will have to break down each section of the main equation in its entirety, because many factors contribute to the absorption, emission, and diffuse transmission of the transparent aerogel!

Some of these factors include the Mie Theory, Optical Depth, Single-Scattering Albedo, Scattering Phase Functions, etc.

See you tomorrow to break them all down! 😤

Shoutout to MIT for the research papers! :))

Vocabulary! 📓

Radiative Transfer Equation → Any change in the specific intensity of the light along the length of the aerogel is a function of the diffuse transmittance minus the absorption scattering of the light as it passes through the particles in the transparent aerogel.

Haze → In aerogel, haze is defined as a lack of transparency, or that the aerogel looks somewhat cloudy rather than clear.

Transparency → All the light will pass through a material, and it won’t be reflected, absorbed, or scatter in a material.

Direct Transmission → Passes through the aerogel without changing direction.

Diffuse Transmission → Passes through the aerogel at an angle, the angle of the light is no longer 0 degrees.

Absorption → The light is absorbed by the aerogel particles.

Diffuse Reflection → Light enters through the aerogel and is reflected the way it entered through the aerogel at an angle.

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© 2021 by Carlos Manuel Jarquin Sanchez. All Rights Reserved.

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