RESPONSE OF LASER DIFFRACTION PARTICLE SIZER TO ANISOMETRIC PARTICLES

This study deals with the size measurement of non-spherical particles by the laser diffraction technique. Size analyses of three sets of identical metallic bodies (cubes, tablets and cylinders) were performed by means of a Malvern 2600 instrument. The results prove that under the operating conditions chosen and in the case of anisometric objects, the mean total surface area is not measurable either because the Malvern software, strictly valid for spheres, is not applicable to such particles or because the particles adopt preferential orientations in the measurement cell. Further, a way of processing diffraction data is proposed in order to determine two characteristic dimensions of identical anisometric particles. It is based on the measurement of the minimum and maximum projected surface areas of the particles. The experimental results obtained with our particles show the procedure to be reliable.