Determination of particle concentration by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS)

NEN-ISO 23484 deals with the application of small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) for the measurement of the particle concentration in suspensions. In this document, only the concentration of sufficiently monodisperse spherical particles is treated, which means that the width of the size distribution is typically below about 50 % of the mean diameter. Here, the differential scattering cross section can be calculated based on the form factor, which depends only on the momentum transfer q and the particle radius r. Furthermore, this document is limited to dilute systems. A dilute system in the sense of SAXS means that particle interactions are absent. In case of long-range interactions (Coulomb forces between the particles), special care needs to be taken and a reduction of the concentration can be necessary.