Patent ID: 8395398

Claim:
A method of characterizing large particles present among a mixture of particles more highly concentrated with small particles, the method comprising: (a) preparing a suspension of the mixture in an electrolyte; (b) passing the prepared suspension, and a plurality of the particles therein, through an aperture of a device capable of characterizing particles according to the Coulter principle to obtain data on the particles; and, (c) deriving a particle size distribution from the obtained data, wherein the suspension comprises at least one small particle per aperture volume, and wherein the large particles have an average diameter that is at least five times greater than the average diameter of the small particles, and the aperture has a diameter that is (i) at least 50 times greater than the average diameter of the small particles, and (ii) about 1.2 times greater than the average diameter of the large particles to less than about 50 times greater than the average diameter of the large particles.