Table 1 Methods typically used to characterise particles (viruses, extracellular vesicles, and protein aggregates) and their ability for phage counting, size distribution characterisation, and detection of aggregates in suspension.

Spectroscopy^29,30,31

 Turbidimetry

No

No

Yes

 < 10 min

 UV/Vis-spectroscopy

No

No

Yes

 < 10 min

Scattering^17,29,31

 SAXS, MALLS, SLS

No

Yes

Yes

Min to hour

Combined light scattering and Brownian motion^{17,18,19,20,21,22,28,29,31}

 DLS

Yes

Yes

Yes

15–20 min

 NTA

Yes

Yes

Yes

15–20 min

 ILM

Yes

Yes

Yes

 < 10 min

Microscopy^{17,18,19,23,24,25,26,29,33}

 Optical

No

No

Yes

15–20 min

 Epifluorescence

Yes

No

Yes

Hours

 Electronic

No

Yes

Yes

Hours

 AFM

No

Yes

Yes

Hours

Miscellaneous^{17,18,19,27,29}

 FCM

Yes

Yes

Yes

Min to hour

 qPCR

Yes

No

No

Hours

 Plaque assay

Yes

No

No

Hours