Particle Sizing Anaysis - Myths and Misconceptions

Larry Unger, Management, PSS, an Entegris Company, Wellington, United States (larry.unger@entegris.com)

Particle sizing is a relatively common technique employed across a wide range of industrial and pharmaceutical applications.  There exist a large number of different techniques for determining particle size, requiring the selection of a technique for any particular sample analysis.  Most educational systems spend very little time educating students of the various techniques and their strengths and shortcomings.  As a result, techniques chosen for any specific measurement may not be the best technique for characterizing a particular product.  In fact, may measurements made today are based on methods that are not well suited for the particular application.  

This presentation will provide an overview of a number of different measurement techniques, compare and contrast them, and point out their strengths and weaknesses.  The emphasis will be on clarifying options available to analysists in order to achieve the best possible particle size measurements for a particular application.

With the large number of techniques available, there have been many misconceptions fostered over the years regarding the meaning of the data produced by these different methods.  A review of reference materials for determining the accuracy of these methods and brief commentary on these reference materials, often referred to as standards will be provided as well, along with some comments differentiating between a standard and a reference material.

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Abstract Reference & Short Personal Biography of Presenting Author

Larry is currenty EMEA Sales Channel Manager of Particle Sizing Systems, an Entegris Co.  After earning a B.Sc. in Chemistry at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, Larry earned a M.A. in Chemistry from Brandeis University, A Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, and served as a Post-Doctoral Student at University of Pennsylvania.  He has been an adjunct professor at both Temple University and Florida Atlantic University Honors College.  Having worked in the particle sizing industry for more than 20 years working with techniques such as Laser Diffraction, Dynamic Light Scattering, Zeta potential, SEM, Image Analysis, and Single Particle Optical Sizing, he will bring insight into the benefits and shortcomings of the various particle analysis systems, discussing the misconceptions that many users have about the accuracy and reliability of the results of these methods.