Laser diffraction of acicular particles: practical applications

David M. Scott; Tatsushi Matsuyama

doi:10.1117/12.2067298

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6 August 2014 Laser diffraction of acicular particles: practical applications

David M. Scott, Tatsushi Matsuyama

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Proceedings Volume 9232, International Conference on Optical Particle Characterization (OPC 2014); 923210 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2067298
Event: International Conference on Optical Particle Characterization (OPC 2014), 2014, Tokyo, Japan

Abstract

Commercial laser diffraction instruments are widely used to measure particle size distribution (PSD), but the results are distorted for non-spherical (acicular) particles often encountered in practical applications. Consequently the distribution, which is reported in terms of equivalent spherical diameter, requires interpretation. For rod-like and plate-like particles, the PSD tends to be bi-modal, with the two modal sizes closely related to the median length and width, or width and thickness, of the particles. Furthermore, it is found that the bi-modal PSD for at least one instrument can typically be approximated by a bi-lognormal distribution. By fitting such a function to the reported distribution, one may extract quantitative information useful for process or product development. This approach is illustrated by examples of such measurement on industrial samples of polymer particles, crystals, bacteria, and clays.

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David M. Scott and Tatsushi Matsuyama "Laser diffraction of acicular particles: practical applications", Proc. SPIE 9232, International Conference on Optical Particle Characterization (OPC 2014), 923210 (6 August 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2067298

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