Force interactions of porous silica glass microspheres against mirror-polished stainless steel in nonaqueous solvents

Force interactions of porous silica particles against mirror-polished stainless steel surfaces were quantified in the presence of various solvents to facilitate processing of ceramics with less reliance on organic aids which subsequently need to be burned off. The results were compared to and found to be in good agreement to idealized models of van der Waals force interactions. Significantly, van der Waals attractive forces between steel surfaces and silica surfaces were minimized through the use of tetrahydrofuran and enhanced using methanol. The solvent selections were further extended to settling behavior and were found to follow the general trends determined by Stokes law. The methods presented herein can be extended to other real-world systems.