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Design of gas‐phase synthesis of core‐shell particles by computational fluid–aerosol dynamics
Author(s) -
Buesser B.,
Pratsinis S. E.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.12512
Subject(s) - aerosol , coating , nanoparticle , materials science , chemical engineering , shell (structure) , particle (ecology) , computational fluid dynamics , chemical vapor deposition , jet (fluid) , nanotechnology , composite material , chemistry , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , oceanography , physics , geology , engineering
Core‐shell particles preserve the bulk properties (e.g., magnetic and optical) of the core while its surface is modified by a shell material. Continuous aerosol coating of core TiO 2 nanoparticles with nanothin silicon dioxide shells by jet injection of hexamethyldisiloxane precursor vapor downstream of titania particle formation is elucidated by combining computational fluid and aerosol dynamics. The effect of inlet coating vapor concentration and mixing intensity on product shell thickness distribution is presented. Rapid mixing of the core aerosol with the shell precursor vapor facilitates efficient synthesis of hermetically coated core‐shell nanoparticles. The predicted extent of hermetic coating shells is compared with the measured photocatalytic oxidation of isopropanol by such particles as hermetic SiO 2 shells prevent the photocatalytic activity of titania. Finally, the performance of a simpler, plug‐flow coating model is assessed by comparisons with the present detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model in terms of coating efficiency and silica average shell thickness and texture. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2011