A population balance model with simultaneous aggregation and breakage for the synthesis of Titanium dioxide nanoparticles

Abstract

In this work we discuss the applications of aggregation and multiple breakage equations in nano-technology. The kinetics of the aggregation and breakage processes during titanium dioxide (TiO2) nano-particle sol-gel synthesis is presented. Nano-particle precipitation in the batch reactor is discussed briefly and the particle size distributions (PSDs) are verified numerically by solving population balance equations (PBEs). The cell average technique (CAT) is used to solve the equations. The experimental data for the PSDs and the simulation results are compared by taking a shear flow aggregation kernel and two different breakage kernels, e.g. Austin and Diemer kernels. The comparisons are good enough to see the novelty of this work..