Estimation of size distribution of quartz dust samples by infrared spectrometry

To evaluate air contamination of living and working environments with dust, information on particle size of the dust is essentially needed. Therefore, a convenient method to determine particle size distribution is valuable for an assessment of pollution. In this study, an infrared spectrometry was applied to measuring particle size distribution of quartz dust. The estimation of size distribution is based on dependence of infrared absorbance on the particle size of sample dust. Application of multiple regression analysis allowed calculation of the particle sizes with a vector of the absorbance peaks and regression coefficients. The particle size distribution was gotten as a vector of cumulative weight percent. The particle size distribution of standard quartz determined by the infrared method was in good agreement with that of the same quartz sample determined by a centrifugal particle size analyzer, and the validity of this method was proved.