INVERSION OF STATIC LIGHT-SCATTERING MEASUREMENTS FOR PARTICLE-SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS

The inversion of static light scattering measurements (SLS) for the evaluation of particle size distributions is reported. The performances of two inversiion methods, i.e., the maximum entropy method and a constrained regularization method (Contin), are illustrated with simulated data and experiments on samples with unimodal, bimodal, and trimodal distributions of spherical particles and on a sample with a broad size distribution. Some experimental results are compared to assessments by photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) and electron microscopy (EM). It appears that a significantly better resolution in particle size is obtained by SLS than by PCS. However, for a sample with a broad distribution in particle sizes, not all details of the distribution observed by EM were resolved. © 1992.