Acceleration of dispersing calcium carbonate particle in aqueous media using jet milling method

Abstract

Suspending particles in a liquid phase is a key to producing various functional nano products. We prepared calcium carbonate (CaCO3) particles in aqueous suspension using two methods, ultrasonication and jet milling, and characterized them using various techniques. Suspensions of CaCO3 particles in aqueous media were prepared with different industrial surfactants: polyethylene glycol p-(1,1,3,3,-tetramethylbutyl)-phenyl ether (Triton X-100), polyoxyethylene(23) lauryl ether (Brij35), polyoxyethylene alkylether (Softanol70), and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). According to dynamic light scattering and asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation assessments, the dispersed CaCO3 particles are clearly small when Triton X-100 or Softanol 70 is used as the surfactant regardless of whether ultrasonication or jet milling was used as the dispersion method, although the size distribution of the particles varies depending on the dispersion method. The observed zeta potentials of the CaCO3 particles in various surfactant solutions support the finding that Triton X-100 and Softanol70 are good dispersants for CaCO3 particles in aqueous media because of their larger electrostatic repulsion interaction. Pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR) indicated that jet milling accelerates interaction/adsorption between CaCO3 particles and surfactant molecules, so it disperses the aggregated/agglomerated CaCO3 particles more effectively than ultrasonication. In addition, interestingly, we found that Softanol70 worked well as a dispersant for CaCO3 particles in aqueous media for both ultrasonication and jet milling, as indicated by the PFG-NMR assessment.