Dispersion.
A little of history:
When I had started my company, we had a small production line with same nanoparticulate oxides as dry powders. We knew that these oxides had a lot of application in various industries. But, It was not so simple.
When you take a little of nanoparticulate Alumina (Al2O3), with a DLS like Mv=80, and a surface area = 400 m2/g and try to disperse in water, what happen? The same think when you put chocolate milk in cold milk: Big agglomeration and sedimentation. This occurs because we have a lot of surface force attracting the particles each other.
So, we sell a couple of kilos of alumina alpha to a refractory company. They made refractory bricks with an aqueous slurry. Our nanoparticles had aggregated and sedimented at the bottom of the mold and the brick had cracked at the furnace.
So we had learned that we cannot sell simple nanoparticles to this kind of company. We developed a process that creates organic “hair” in our particle, like picture below. This organics structures have the job to prevent aggregation and sedimentation.
functionalized particle
Now we sell functionalized alumina alpha to the same company. Could be powder or a water dispersion. A little of this material can reduce the sintering temperature, increase the density of the ceramic brick and increase the mechanical resistance.
Now, 99% of our sales are functionalized particles, as powder or colloidal suspensions. This eneabled our business model.
Regards,
Tarik Della Santina Mohallem
R&D Director
Nanum Nanotecnologia SA
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