Acorn™, a new, simple, inexpensive method for non-invasive particle size measurement of suspensions and droplets

摘要

Nanoscale particle sizing of colloidal suspensions can be performed with Acorn,™ a new, patented handheld device, that combines remote delivery and detection of laser light, and a direct measurement of particle size, without the use of digital correlators. The former is achieved through a singlemode backscatter fiber optic probe, while the latter is made possible through the implementation of a statistical processing algorithm, which recovers the average particle diameter from the integration time dependent coherence of the scattered intensity. Real-time measurement of the factorial moments, or the coherence of the scattered intensity, is made with a field programmable gate array. A fiber optic backscatter probe permits remote interrogation of samples either by dipping the probe into the solution or by placing the probe outside the container. Acorn™ provides a rapid measurement of the average diameter in the range of 2 to 5000 nm over a broad range of concentrations.