Cavitation – A novel technique for making stable nano-suspensions

• Published in: Ultrasonics sonochemistry Vol. 14; no. 5; pp. 519 - 530
• Main Authors: Patil, Mohan Narayan, Pandit, Aniruddha B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.07.2007; Elsevier
• Subjects: Butadienes - chemistry; Cavitation; Chemistry; Colloidal state and disperse state; Elastomers - chemistry; Exact sciences and technology; General and physical chemistry; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Nano-particles; Nano-suspension; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nanotechnology - instrumentation; Nanotechnology - methods; Particle Size; Physical and chemical studies. Granulometry. Electrokinetic phenomena; Physical chemistry of induced reactions (with radiations, particles and ultrasonics); SBR; Size reduction; Styrenes - chemistry; Surface Properties; Suspensions; Ultrasonic chemistry; 43.35.Ei; SBR; Size reduction; 81.16.−c; 82.35.Np; Nano-particles; Nano-suspension; Cavitation; Chemical reduction; 81.16.-c; 82.35.Np; 43.35.Ei; Sonochemistry; Nanoparticle; Nano-particles; Cavitation; SBR; Nano-suspension; Size reduction; Particle suspension; Ultrasound
• ISSN: 1350-4177; 1873-2828
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2006.10.007

The purpose of the present study was to obtain nano-scale particles of styrene butadiene rubber. As SBR particles are elastic in nature, conventional methods of size reductions such as impacting, grinding are unable to achieve the final size. So, attempts have been made here to make the nano-particles of the SBR using cavitation technique. Both acoustic and hydrodynamic cavitation techniques have been employed and studied. Hydrodynamic cavitation has been proved to be more energy efficient than the acoustic cavitation on the basis of various parameters. The maximum production rate equivalent to 2kg/h (solid processing) has been achieved in the newly developed hydrodynamic cavitation set-up (made in house). Similar to transient cavitation, stable cavitation has also been shown to contribute for reduction in the size of the material with very low variation in size. This technique has been proved successful for the size-reduction of the elastic material to nano-scale, thus it may also be used for the size-reduction of the other brittle and hard material by adjusting various cavitational parameters.