Thermal drying, post-treatment processes

The term post-treatment refers to processes vdiich are used after the principal solid-liquid separation has been achieved. The final step in the latter operation is usually some type of cake filtration which will leave a cake that may be fully saturated with liquid or partially drained and it is extremely unlikely that the solids are in an acceptable condition for any subsequent operation such as thermal drying. Thus the post treatment processes are washing and deliquoring which are concerned req>ectively with removing the soluble solids from the liquid remaining in the cake and then purging the major proportion of the liquid fi om the cake pores. 

A liquid-handling robot was customized for both sol-gel [46] and evaporative wafer-based syntheses [44]. The appropriate precursors are mixed from stock solutions into micro-titer plates and then volumetrically transferred to the support wafers. Key variables in these syntheses are the drying environment and drying temperature and post treatments. The liquid or gel is dried under controlled conditions and then thermally processed in a tube furnace exposed to desired process gases. After synthesis is complete, the wafers are analyzed by XRD, SEM, and XRF to monitor structural phases, morphologies, and compositions respectively. 

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