LATEX PARTICLE-SIZE DISTRIBUTION FROM TURBIDIMETRIC MEASUREMENTS - COMBINING REGULARIZATION AND GENERALIZED CROSS-VALIDATION TECHNIQUES

This chapter reports the recovery (deconvolution) of particle size distributions (PSDs) from turbidimetric measurements using a regularization technique (RT). Regularization techniques require the selection of a constraining parameter known as the regularization parameter. In this work the regularization parameter was calculated by using the generalized cross-validation (GCV) technique. The use of these complimentary techniques (RT and GCV) is demonstrated through the simulated recovery of PSDs of polystyrene latices. Unimodal and bimodal PSDs of varying breadth and mean particle diameters were investigated. The results demonstrate that the combination of these techniques yields adequate recoveries of the PSDs in almost every case. The cases where the techniques fail are identified, and strategies for subsequent recovery are discussed.