Performance of analytical centrifugation for the particle size analysis of real-world materials

•Performance examination of analytical centrifugation determining particle sizes•Using real world materials in the nano- and non-nano size range•Evaluation of method's intermediate precision according to ISO 5725•Comparison of results obtained with radiation of 470 nm and 865 nm•Recommendation on the specific use of analytical centrifugation

Analytical centrifugation (AC) is a powerful technique for the measurement of particle size distributions. This study evaluates its performance for the grouping of particulate materials according to the European Commission's recommendation on the definition of a nanomaterial, which bases on the number-weighted median diameter. The focus lies on cuvette-type AC with turbidity detector and on the performance in the case of polydisperse, non-spherical real-world materials. Two grades of barium sulfate (nano and non-nano) were analysed. This study compares the repeatability of the measurement and the method precision including sample preparation, measurement and conversion into number-weighted particle size distributions. Experimental results show that the selected radiation wavelengths of 470 nm and 865 nm have only little impact on the number-weighted median diameter, but affect the intermediate precision of these values. However, the intermediate precision of the method is mainly determined by sample preparation up to 12.6% with respect to the number-weighted median diameter (x50,0). This paper provides information on particle sizing on real-world materials for the first time.

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