Abstract

Although synchrotron radiation providesa powerful X-ray source for scattering experiments, the absolute measurement of scattered X-ray intensity causes a practical problem. Since the conventional molecular weight determination by small-angle X-ray scattering requires the absolute intensity to be evaluated accurately, no experiment was undertaken so far to determine the molecular weight by synchrotron radiation small-angle X-ray scattering. A theory was developed to evaluate the molecu-lar weight without knowledge of absolute scattered intensity, and the theory was examined by four biopolymers including lysozyme,bovine s rum albumin and pullulan. KEY WORDS: Synchrotron radiation/Small-angle X-ray scattering/Molecu-lar weight determination/Lysozyme/Bovine serum albumin/