Analysis of Multimodal Particle Size Distribution of a Mixture of Four Different Sized Silica Standards

Silica particle size standards with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) traceable certified mean diameters are suitable for a wide variety of particle measurement applications. The standards are designed for applications requiring monodispersed inorganic spheres. Silica spheres provide more contrast than polymer particles as they are opaque in an optical cell. They also have a higher density than polystyrene particles, making them ideal for sedimentation measurements. Fig. 1 is a photograph of silica particles from Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TFS). This time, four types of monodispersed colloidal silica Sigma-AldrichTM (SA) were mixed to evaluate the resolution and quantitative capability of the centrifugal sedimentation method.