Controlling the particle size of spherical silica by adjusting the gas flow environment around the flame

Abstract

To synthesize silica particles, a dry process consisting of burning an organosilicon compound as raw monomer has been widely studied. Previously, we used six starting materials in the dry process and investigated the effects of monomer species on the particle shape and size of silica. Here, we fixed the raw monomer species and amount of gas supplied from the burner and focused on the relationship between the gas environment around the flame and silica particle size. Specifically, we focused on quaternary gas flowing around the flame as a factor that affected the temperature around the flame. Its flow rate and velocity were expected to directly affect the temperature around the flame. We established the relationship between the temperature environment around the flame, specifically the amount of heat absorbed by the hot water for cooling the reactor and silica particle sizes. The temperature environment around the flame was determined by the balance between the reactor's size and amount of quaternary gas. Simultaneously, it was emitted as the amount of heat absorbed per unit heat transfer area of hot water. Consequently, we concluded that the environment around the flame determined the size of spherical silica particles and successfully controlled the particle size. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved