This paper describes the measurement of particle size distribution of silica nanoparticles by interactive force apparatus (IFA) under an electric field in order to suggest the application of the apparatus to the measurement of particle size distribution. The results were compared with results obtained from size measurement by dynamic light scattering. D-50 measured by IFA was closer to the average particle size determined by TEM (5 nm). Also, when compared the results under three different supply voltage, (1) the results at 0.01 and 0.02 V were almost identical while (2) these results were different from the one at 0.04 V. The results indicate that breakage of coagulated particles possibly occur due to electric breakdown. The distribution measured by IFA (D-50 = 5-7 nm) was larger than the one measured by DLS (D-50 = 1 nm). The electric breakdown was explained by curve fitting of three different particle size distribution functions with particle size distribution obtained from IFA measurement. Crown Copyright (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.