Identification of the Dispersion Behavior of Surface Treated Nanoscale Powders

The stability of highly acidic metal oxide surface treatments on rutile titanium dioxide nanopowders (40 nm nominal particle size) is examined. Dispersions are characterized in terms of their sedimentation behavior and light scattering pattern. Using elliptically polarized light scattering (EPLS), agglomerates are identified as fractal structures and size analysis is performed according to the measured fractal dimension. The effect of ultrasonication on agglomerate size and structure (compactness) is quantified for tungsten oxide and molybdenum oxide surface treatments, as well as untreated titanium oxide. Surface treatments are shown to increase dispersion stability, as witnessed by the decreased size of large agglomerates and sedimentation behavior. The EPLS fractal studies, combined with ultrasonication analysis, reveals information of agglomerate shapes, primary particle bonds and structures, and agglomerate growth mechanisms.     

团簇状碳黑颗粒在丙烯臭氧氧化和光氧化体系中的重构

大气中的碳黑颗粒具有不规则的分形团簇结构. 以电火花放电产生的团簇碳黑颗粒为研究对象,发现颗粒的团簇结构在丙烯臭氧氧化和光氧化体系中均发生重构,形成更为紧实的结构. 研究表明这种重构是由丙烯氧化产生的过氧自由基和羟基自由基引起的. 研究结果有助于对大气中团簇状碳黑颗粒老化过程的进一步了解. 由于重构直接改变了颗粒的粒径分布,这一过程可能导致碳黑颗粒在大气中物理化学特性的重大改变. 关键词： 团簇碳黑颗粒 重构 丙烯 烟雾箱     

Effects of Al(OH)O nanoparticle agglomerate size in epoxy resin on tension,bending, and fracture properties

Several epoxy Al(OH)O (boehmite) dispersions in an epoxy resin are produced in a kneader to study the mechanistic correlation between the nanoparticle size and mechanical properties of the prepared nanocomposites. The agglomerate size is set by a targeted variation in solid content and temperature during dispersion, resulting in a different level of stress intensity and thus a different final agglomerate size during the process. The suspension viscosity was used for the estimation of stress energy in laminar shear flow. Agglomerate size measurements are executed via dynamic light scattering to ensure the quality of the produced dispersions. Furthermore, various nanocomposite samples are prepared for three-point bending, tension, and fracture toughness tests. The screening of the size effect is executed with at least seven samples per agglomerate size and test method. The variation of solid content is found to be a reliable method to adjust the agglomerate size between 138–354 nm during dispersion. The size effect on the Young’s modulus and the critical stress intensity is only marginal. Nevertheless, there is a statistically relevant trend showing a linear increase with a decrease in agglomerate size. In contrast, the size effect is more dominant to the sample’s strain and stress at failure. Unlike microscaled agglomerates or particles, which lead to embrittlement of the composite material, nanoscaled agglomerates or particles cause the composite elongation to be nearly of the same level as the base material. The observed effect is valid for agglomerate sizes between 138–354 nm and a particle mass fraction of 10 wt%.     

Measurement of Inherent Material Density of Nanoparticle Agglomerates

We describe a new technique to measure the size dependent inherent material density of chain agglomerate particles. Measurements were carried out for diesel soot and aluminum/alumina agglomerate particles in the nanometer size range. Transmission electron microscopy was used to measure the volumes of agglomerate particles that were preselected by mass using an aerosol particle mass analyzer. We found that the density of diesel exhaust particles increased from 1.27 to 1.78g/cm³ as particle mobility size increased from 50 to 220nm. When particles are preheated to remove volatile components, the density was 1.77±0.07g/cm³, independent of particle size. The densities measured after heating correspond to the inherent material density of diesel soot. Measurements with aluminum nanoparticles were made downstream of a furnace where aluminum (Al) was converted to alumina (Al₂O₃). From measurements of inherent material density we were able to infer the extent of reaction, which varied with furnace temperature.     

水分子凝胶中有机凝胶因子聚集体的分形结构研究

水分子凝胶是一种新型软凝聚体系.是凝胶因子在很低的浓度下在水中聚集、自组装，使水凝胶化形成的凝聚体系.透射电镜(TEM)表明凝胶因子在水中聚集、自组装成细纤维状结构.通过对TEM照片进行数字化处理，采用Sandbox法和密度-密度相关函数法计算的结果表明凝胶因子在聚集组装过程中具有典型的分形特征.根据C++程序计算出分形维数D＝1.814—1.977.以分形理论对凝胶因子的聚集过程以及由此形成的水分子凝聚体系的分形特征进行了讨论.利用小角x射线散射(SAXS)研究进一步表明，凝聚体系的分形结构存在于尺度α 关键词： 分形 凝胶因子 水分子凝聚体系 透射电镜(TEM) 小角x射线散射(SAXS)     

Experimental data and model predictions of aluminium agglomeration in ammonium perchlorate-based composite propellants including plateau-burning formulations

Sixteen propellant formulations based on ammonium perchlorate (AP), hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene, and aluminium particles have been tested for size distribution of aluminium agglomerates emerging from their burning surface. The formulations are based on a bimodal size distribution of AP particles. Ten of the formulations exhibit one or two plateaus/mesa in their burning rate variation with pressure (zero/negative pressure exponent of burning rate). The relevant formulation variables, namely, coarse and fine AP sizes and coarse-to-fine ratio, aluminium size and content, and two different curing agents, have been varied. Tests are performed in the 1–10 MPa pressure range. A direct correlation between burning rate and agglomerate size exists for propellants with normal burning rate trends but a neutral or inverse correlation is observed for those exhibiting plateau burning behaviour. Larger the parent aluminium size, lesser the agglomeration, as expected; but the effect of aluminium content is non-monotonic. The coarse AP size influences the aluminium agglomerate size as expected from the pocket model regardless of plateau burning effects. The agglomerate size decreases with increase in fine AP size, however. A computer model developed earlier at this laboratory for prediction of aluminium agglomerates based on three-dimensional packing of particles and deduction of AP particles with attached leading edge diffusion flames is applied to the present formulations. The model under-predicts the agglomerate size, only marginally for propellants that do not exhibit plateau burning rate trends, but substantially, otherwise. This is because it does not take into account effects of binder melt flow and is independent of the curing agent of the binder.     

Influence of the Particle Morphology on the Activity of Nanometer Platinum Aerosol Catalysts

For nanoparticle agglomerates, the catalytic activity may depend strongly on their structure. The influence of different parameters such as agglomerate structure, primary particle temperature history and surface preconditioning on the catalytic activity of nanoparticles was investigated. The fraction of agglomerate surface contributing to the reaction depends on the agglomerate structure and on the velocity of the reaction under investigation. For extremely fast reactions such as the oxidation of hydrogen on Pt nanoparticles, only the outermost surface (exposed surface) contributes substantially to the formation of water. For the system investigated here, the inner surface not substantially contributing to the reaction accounted for at least 70% of the total particle surface as determined from oxygen presaturation experiments of the agglomerate surface. A considerable activity loss of the platinum particles was observed on preheating the nanoparticle agglomerates. The preheating leads to an increase in the nanoparticle size by an order of magnitude due to sintering. It is unclear if this activity reduction is due to changes in the particle surface state or to a real size effect of the nanoparticles.     

基于分形理论的驻波声场中颗粒团运动特性数值预测*

基于分形理论,建立驻波声场中颗粒团动力学模型,对颗粒团的夹带系数、相位滞后和漂移系数进行数值预测。将预测结果和实验进行对比,二者吻合良好。在此基础上,研究了组成颗粒团的原生颗粒半径、数目以及排列情况对于颗粒团运动特性参数的影响。结果表明,对于由两个原生颗粒组成的颗粒团,原生颗粒半径越接近,颗粒团与等体积球形颗粒运动特性的差异越大;在分形维数一定时,随着原生颗粒数目的增多,颗粒团的夹带系数减小,相位滞后增加,漂移系数先增大后减小,颗粒团与等体积球形颗粒的动力学行为存在显著差异;原生颗粒排列趋于致密时,颗粒团的夹带系数增大,相位滞后减小,漂移系数发生单调变化,与等体积球形颗粒运动特性的差异缩小。     

Comparison of fractal analysis methods in the study of fractals with independent branching

The notion of dimension as a quantitative characteristic of space geometry is discussed. It is supposed that hadrons created in interactions between particles and nuclei can be considered sets of points possessing fractal properties in the three-dimensional phase space (p _T , η, ?). The Hausdorff-Besicovich dimension D _F is considered the most natural characteristic for determining the fractal dimension. Different methods for determining the fractal dimension are compared: box counting (BC), P-adic coverage (PaC), and system of equations of P-adic coverage (SePaC). A procedure for choosing optimum values of parameters of the considered methods is presented. These parameters are shown to be able to reconstruct the fractal dimension D _F , number of levels N _lev, and fractal structure with maximal efficiency. The features of the PaC- and SePaC-methods in the analysis of fractals with independent branching are noted.     

Surface fractal analysis of pore structure of high-volume fly-ash cement pastes

The surface fractal dimensions of high-volume fly-ash cement pastes are evaluated for their hardening processes on the basis of mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) data. Two surface fractal models are retained: Neimark's model with cylindrical pore hypothesis and Zhang's model without pore geometry assumption. From both models, the logarithm plots exhibit the scale-dependent fractal properties and three distinct fractal regions (I, II, III) are identified for the pore structures. For regions I and III, corresponding to the large (capillary) and small (C-S-H inter-granular) pore ranges respectively, the pore structure shows strong fractal property and the fractal dimensions are evaluated as 2.592-2.965 by Neimark's model and 2.487-2.695 by Zhang's model. The fractal dimension of region I increases with w/b ratio and hardening age but decreases with fly-ash content by its physical filling effect; the fractal dimension of region III does not evolve much with these factors. The region II of pore size range, corresponding to small capillary pores, turns out to be a transition region and show no clear fractal properties. The range of this region is much influenced by fly-ash content in the pastes. Finally, the correlation between the obtained fractal dimensions and pore structure evolution is discussed in depth.     

Analysis of fractal dimensions in the express diagnostics of bacterial colonies

The features of the formation of speckle structures under irradiation of a model fractal (Sierpinski carpet) have been investigated. The relationship between the fractal properties of the diffraction pattern and the scattering structure parameters (model fractal geometrical sizes, fractal depth) has been analyzed for the irradiation by a focused light beam, whose size is comparable with that of the irradiated object. The results of the computer simulation of the Gaussian beam scattering in bacterial colonies are compared with the experimental data.     

Fluidization of Nano-size Particles

Fluidization and collapsing bed experiments were performed with 'Tullanox', 10nm diameter fumed silica. The minimum fluidization velocity was determined to be 0.0115m/s at the unusually low volume fraction of solids of 0.0077. The solids volume fraction was measured using a -ray densitometer. Fluidization was without large bubbles, with a high bed expansion ratio. The highest granular temperature was of the order of that of Geldart B particles, as measured by Cody et al. (1996). The sedimentation process was simulated using a two-fluid hydrodynamic model. The input into the model was a measured solids stress modulus and an agglomerate size determined from the settling curves. With these two rheological parameters, there was good agreement between the sedimentation theory and the experiment. This study shows that the standard collapse bed experiment used in industry is a good test of rheological properties of particles.     

The Fragmentation Fractal – a useful descriptor of broken rock

The fragmentation fractal has been used to accurately describe the distribution of rock progeny from single particle breakage events. This paper illustrates the underlying physical significance of the fragmentation fractal and how it may be used as a fundamental tool in understanding rock pulverisation. The experimental determination of the fragmentation fractal is based on the measurement of particle size by project area as given by image analysis. In this format the characteristic length is defined as the square root of projected area. This approach to rock particle size analysis can have advantages over other techniques especially when the mass or number of fragments is small. A brief comparison has been made with size by projected area and the corresponding sieve size of artificial objects of different shape, but equivalent characteristic length. It is suggested that projected area measurements are less sensitive to the influence of particle shape and that this may even aid the comparison of distributions of fragments of significantly different morphologies.     

Elastic properties of a disordered continuum of regular fractal structure: Self-consistent approach and finite-element method simulations

Macromolecular structures, as well as aggregation of filler in polymer-based composites, often may be described properly as fractals. Scaling behavior of the elastic moduli of a modeled fractal, the Sierpinski carpet, was the subject of this study. Sheng and Tao [1] and Patlazhan [2] found that, in the case of voids in on elastic host, axial and shear moduli exhibit distinct scaling dependencies on the size of the system. Nevertheless, it is widely accepted that moduli of random isotropic fractals (percolation clusters) scale with the same exponents. Explanation of the discrepancy is one of the main targets of the paper. The self-consistent approach and position space renormalization group technique (PSRG) have been applied for this goal. The mapping, corresponding to PSRG, was constructed numerically using the finite-element method (FEM) in the cases of voids and rigid inclusions. The self-consistent approach gives scaling behavior with exponents of values of about 0.11, independent of the modulus and type of inclusion, at developed stages of the fractal. It has been shown that mappings of PSRG on the plane, for two ratios of three independent moduli, have stable fixed points. This means that different elastic moduli exhibit scaling behavior with the same exponents (0.29 for voids and 0.17 for rigid squares) for developed fractal structure. The discrepancy in the exponent values obtained in the previous simulations is caused by the analysis of the initial stages of the structure. We believe that analogous results are valid for the wide class of self-similar fractals, and the dimension is the main parameter that governs the exponents and fixed point values.     

Far-field intensity of electromagnetic waves scattered from random,self-affine fractal metal surfaces

Abstract

By means of the rigorous Green theorem integral equation formulation, we study the far-field intensity of linearly polarized, monochromatic electromagnetic waves scattered from a one-dimensionally rough silver surface characterized by a self-affine fractal structure. These surface fractal properties are ensured for the entire range of relevant length scales, from the illuminated spot size down to a sufficiently small (in terms of the wavelength) lower cut-off length. A peak in the specular direction is found in the angular distribution of the diffuse component of the mean scattered intensity, which becomes broader and smaller with increasing fractal dimension. For large fractal dimensions, enhanced backscattering in the case of p-polarization is observed owing to the roughness-induced excitation of surface plasmon polaritons. The interplay of different length scales of the fractal surface in the scattering process is analysed for an intermediate fractal dimension.     

Avalanche size scaling in sheared three-dimensional amorphous solid

We study the statistics of plastic rearrangement events in a simulated amorphous solid at T=0. Events are characterized by the energy release and the "slip volume", the product of plastic strain and system volume. Their distributions for a given system size L appear to be exponential, but a characteristic event size cannot be inferred, because the mean values of these quantities increase as Lalpha with alpha approximately 3/2. In contrast with results obtained in 2D models, we do not see simply connected avalanches. The exponent suggests a fractal shape of the avalanches, which is also evidenced by the mean fractal dimension and participation ratio.     

The Use of Small Angle Light Scattering to Study Structure of Flocs

In this paper, a new approach using small angle light scattering to study the structure of large micron sized flocs is described. The flocs were made up from uniformly sized, approximately spherical hematite particles, induced to aggregate using 250 mM KCl to ensure that growth was governed by diffusion limited aggregation alone. The fractal dimensions of the hematite aggregates changed from 1.73 to 2.23 ± 0.05 as the aggregation proceeded, indicating that restructuring occurred during aggregation. The fractal dimensions obtained from the small angle light scattering technique are compared with those obtained from the combination of volume fraction and floc size measurement. The steady state fractal dimensions (2.23 ± 0.05) obtained by small angle light scattering are comparable to the fractal dimensions obtained from determining the slope of the relationship between floc volume fraction and floc size (2.09 and 2.14 ± 0.05). The discrepancy between the fractal dimensions obtained by these techniques during the initial stages of aggregation is due to the fact that the latter method measures the average fractal dimensions, whilst the former method measures the fractal dimensions at any particular instant.     

等离子喷涂层原生性孔隙几何结构的分形及统计特性

孔隙是等离子喷涂涂层原生性结构, 对涂层的耐磨损、耐腐蚀、耐高温等性能具有显著影响, 是涂层参数优化的重要指标之一. 因此, 对涂层孔隙结构特征参数的全面表征对于更加精确地评价涂层质量具有重要意义. 本文将概率统计方法、分形方法与数字图像分析技术相结合, 研究了等离子喷涂涂层原生性孔隙数量、形态、尺寸及其分布等结构特征参数表征方法及孔隙的成形机理. 首先通过改变喷涂功率得到不同孔隙状态的Fe基合金涂层, 随后采用数字图像分析技术对涂层截面孔隙的扫描电子显微形貌图进行处理, 最后通过Weibull统计模型分析了孔隙周长及面积的尺寸分布特征, 并利用基于分形思想的面积-周长幂率研究了孔隙不规则形态的定量表征方法. 在实验过程中, 为了分析涂层孔隙的成形机理, 采用Spraywatch在线监测喷涂粒子的飞行状态. 结果表明: 分形维数能够表征孔隙的不规则形态, 分形维数越大, 孔隙面积越大或边界形态越复杂, 并且其与孔隙的成形机理之间存在良好的映射关系; 孔隙面积及周长的尺寸分布均服从明显的两项Weibull分布特征, 孔隙尺寸较小时, 形状参数β 较大, 而孔隙尺寸较大时, 则反之; 喷涂功率对孔隙尺寸的聚集特点产生不同程度的影响, 随着喷涂功率的增加, 粒子的融化状态逐渐改善, 孔隙的尺寸明显降低; 而当孔隙面积(周长)小于特征值时, 相同尺寸的孔隙概率密度值则越来越接近, 说明孔隙功率的变化对小尺寸孔隙出现的概率影响较小.     

煤烟聚集粒子的光散射特性研究(英文)

基于分形理论,用计算机模拟了由球形基本粒子构成的煤烟聚集粒子。利用离散偶极子近似方法(Discrete Dipole Approximation)研究了煤烟聚集粒子的散射特性,讨论了分形煤烟聚集粒子的散射强度随煤烟聚集粒子的分形结构、大小、相对折射率及入射波波长变化情况。