Agglomeration in Powder Processing and Agglomerate Strength Determination for the Preparation of Well Dispersed Systems

Summary

During the first two years of this project, we have developed a scheme for quantitatively measuring the bond strength distribution of agglomerates via the use of a calibrated ultrasonic field and developed a synthesis technique for producing model agglomerates with monosize primary particles and narrow strength distributions which can be varied over a wide strength range. Also, the use of this calibrated ultrasonic field approach as a diagnostic tool was demonstrated during titania processing to show at what points in the process, hard agglomerate formation occurs and identify possible processing changes to eliminate hard agglomerate formation.