Particles/aggregate

Often the van der Waals attraction is balanced by electric double-layer repulsion. An important example occurs in the flocculation of aqueous colloids. A suspension of charged particles experiences both the double-layer repulsion and dispersion attraction, and the balance between these determines the ease and hence the rate with which particles aggregate. Verwey and Overbeek [44, 45] considered the case of two colloidal spheres and calculated the net potential energy versus distance curves of the type illustrated in Fig. VI-5 for the case of 0 = 25.6 mV (i.e., 0 = k.T/e at 25°C). At low ionic strength, as measured by K (see Section V-2), the double-layer repulsion is overwhelming except at very small separations, but as k is increased, a net attraction at all distances... 

Anotlier standard metliod is to use a (high-speed) centrifuge to sediment tire colloids, replace tire supernatant and redisperse tire particles. Provided tire particles are well stabilized in tire solvent, tliis allows for a rigorous purification. Larger objects, such as particle aggregates, can be fractionated off because tliey settle first. A tliird metliod is (ultra)filtration, whereby larger impurities can be retained, particularly using membrane filters witli accurately defined pore sizes. 

Amorphous sihca exists also ia a variety of forms that are composed of small particles, possibly aggregated. Commonly encountered products iaclude sihca sols, sihca gels, precipitated sihca, and pyrogenic sihca (9,73). These products differ ia their modes of manufacture and the way ia which the primary particles aggregate (Fig. 8). Amorphous sihcas are characterhed by small ultimate particle si2e and high specific surface area. Their surfaces may be substantially anhydrous or may contain silanol, —SiOH, groups. These sihcas are frequentiy viewed as condensation polymers of sihcic acid, Si(OH)4. 

Fig. 10. Polymerization behavior of silica. In basic solution (B), particles grow in size and decrease in number in acidic solution or in the presence of flocculating salts (A), particles aggregate into three-dimensional networks and form gels (1).

Fluorocarbon soHds are rare in defoamer compositions, presumably on account of their cost. SoHd fluorine-containing fatty alcohols and amides are known. The most familiar fluorocarbon soHd is polytetrafluoroethylene [9002-84-0]. Because it is more hydrophobic than siHcone-treated siHca, it might be expected to perform impressively as a defoamer component (14). However, in conventional hydrocarbon oil formulations it works poorly because the particles aggregate strongly together. In lower surface tension fluids such as siHcone and fluorocarbon oils, the powdered polytetrafluoroethylene particles are much better dispersed and the formulation performs weU as a defoamer. 

The general form of the population balance including aggregation and rupture terms was solved numerically to model the experimental particle size distributions. While excellent agreement was obtained using semi-empirical two-particle aggregation and disruption models (see Figure 6.15), PSD predictions of theoretical models based on laminar and turbulent flow considerations... 

The water solubilities of the functional comonomers are reasonably high since they are usually polar compounds. Therefore, the initiation in the water phase may be too rapid when the initiator or the comonomer concentration is high. In such a case, the particle growth stage cannot be suppressed by the diffusion capture mechanism and the solution or dispersion polymerization of the functional comonomer within water phase may accompany the emulsion copolymerization reaction. This leads to the formation of polymeric products in the form of particle, aggregate, or soluble polymer with different compositions and molecular weights. The yield for the incorporation of functional comonomer into the uniform polymeric particles may be low since some of the functional comonomer may polymerize by an undesired mechanism. 

Figure 6.5. Experiments involving mimics of sporopollenin (the principal component of spore walls] demonstrate that patterns very similar, if not identical to those of natural spores and pollen, can be produced from mixtures containing colloidal particles. All scales refer to bar in (a. (a Spore-like structures of polystyrene particles and particle aggregates formed around a droplet of hydrocarbon. Scale = 10 p.m. (b A broken structure like that shown in (a. Scale =...

Ionic compounds such as halides, carboxylates or polyoxoanions, dissolved in (generally aqueous) solution can generate electrostatic stabilization. The adsorption of these compounds and their related counter ions on the metallic surface will generate an electrical double-layer around the particles (Fig. 1). The result is a coulombic repulsion between the particles. If the electric potential associated with the double layer is high enough, then the electrostatic repulsion will prevent particle aggregation [27,30]. 

Scheme 2. Encapsulation of size- and shape-controlled Pt nanoparticles under neutral hydrothermal synthesis conditions of SBA-15. Silica templating block copolymers and silica precursors were added to PVP-protected Pt nanoparticle solutions and subjected to the standard SBA-15 silica synthesis conditions. Neutral, rather than acidic pH conditions were employed to prevent particle aggregation and amorphous silica formation [16j. (Reprinted from Ref. [16], 2006, with permission from American Chemical Society.)...

Under these conditions, PVA-protected dispersions are stable in the air at room temperature at least for 1 h. Particle aggregation has been observed by standing several hours as shown in the next sections. 

Particle size is a major characteristic of a disperse system. Particle size measurements provide the evaluation of possible particle aggregation or crystal... 

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