Dear Dr. Karnani:
In a broad sense, both terms would be considered synonymous, in this case depending on the context. This event is that occur in a text directed to a non specific public.
In the practice, particle and grain have distinct significates. Each word has a proper significates.
At least, the word particle can represent three substantives, in the powder technology, depending on the scale and/or structure. Particle can be a significant portion of matter with 10^2 or 10^3 times higher than a micrometer.
Also, sometimes is used to give some kind of information about a structure in a powder. In this sense, particle can be used as a synonymous of agglomerate, meaning a set of grains bonded together by secondary chemical bonds or some type of electrostatic effect. Otherwise, particle can be used to describe a set of grains bonded together by chemical bonds (primary bonds) also termed as aggregate. Thus, a grain is the minor unit of a powder with single phase and monodisperse features, without agglomerates and aggregates.
Also, a grain can be single crystal, but in a general way a grain have several crystalline domains being a polycrystal.
kind regards
Marcos Nobre (M. A. L. Nobre)
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