Application of the Tikhonov and the modified Twomey methods to calculate narrow microparticle size distributions by the laser diffraction technique

New ways of calculating narrow microparticle size distributions based on using the Tikhonov and the modified Twomey methods for the laser diffraction technique are presented. These allow to have reduced the broadening (over-smoothing) of the result occurring in these methods for narrow distributions both singular and their sum. The calculated singular distributions and their distribution sum were then approximated by a Gaussian function and a bimodal Gaussian function, respectively, using the Levenberg- Marquardt method. The angular distribution of scattering power was measured for polystyrene particles with radii of 0.676 μm and 1.573 μm, and for their sum. The tests were carried out for linearly polarized He-Ne laser light scattered by a dilute aqueous suspension of these particles. The results obtained were compared with those obtained with the nanoDS instrument (CILAS). It turned out that using the way based on the Twomey method, the parameters of the narrow distribution sought could be determined quite well.