As in the past, new developments in particle characterization theory and techniques are being driven by the demands of modern society to give researchers the tools needed to develop solutions to ongoing problems. In World War I the need for improved gas masks drove the original development of gas adsorption theory for surface area characterization of activated carbons and today, world conditions such as climate change and increasing energy demand are driving continuing development of various characterization methods.

This presentation will survey some significant new particle characterization developments of recent years along with their driving forces and then will examine one specific advance in more detail, the development of new techniques and instrumentation to extract more highly detailed particle size distribution information from a laser light scattering pattern than previously available using Mie Theory. We will show that there is a great deal more information about particle sizes in the light scattering pattern than prior technologies have been able to access. Instrumentation will be presented that is capable of a level of performance previously unavailable.