The present invention provides a method for determining a particle size.
The process includes the steps of: (i) positioning a particle on a flat
surface; (ii) recording a digital image of the particle on the flat
surface wherein the digital image is recorded with an image plane
parallel to the flat surface and the digital image of the particle
includes a digital background of the flat surface; (iii) removing the
digital background image of the flat surface to obtain an isolated
digital image of the particle; (iv) determining a surface area (A) of the
particle from the isolated digital image of the particle; (v) tilting the
particle at an angle (.theta.) with respect to the image plane to expose
an edge of the particle; (vi) measuring a measured thickness (T.sub.m) of
the particle; (vii) determining a calculated actual thickness (T) of the
particle by the equation T=T.sub.m/sine .theta.; (viii) determining a
particle volume (V) of the particle by the equation V=A*T; and (ix)
determining an equivalent spherical particle size diameter (D) of the
particle by the equation D=2*{square root over ((3/4)(1/.pi.)(V))}{square
root over ((3/4)(1/.pi.)(V))}{square root over ((3/4)(1/.pi.)(V))}.