Fluidized Nanoparticle Agglomerates: Formation, Characterization, and Dynamics

Nanoparticles have properties of interest in biology, physics, ecology, geology, chemistry, medicine, aerospace, food science, and engineering among many other fields, due to their intrinsic properties arising from their large surface area to volume ratio and small scale. Most nanoparticle applications require particle’s surface adaptations, for which numerous methods have been developed. For this purpose, the characteristics of fluidization that make it an attractive processing technique are the large gas-solid contact area, no solvent, potential scalability, and suitability for continuous processing. Nanoparticles are not fluidized individually, but rather as clusters, which formdue to the relatively large interparticle forces. As a result, fluidization dynamics is strongly linked to nanoparticle agglomeration.