Effects of impurities on particle sizing by acoustic attenuation spectroscopy

Abstract

It is important to have correct information regarding particle size in order to interpret, control, and optimize many industrial processes. Prior to the recent advent of acoustic attenuation spectroscopy, it was difficult to study particle size distribution online and under real process conditions in processes involving concentrated dispersions (suspensions or emulsions). The technique still needs improvement because it is less known how and under which conditions to employ the technique when dispersions involve impurities that could be soluble, insoluble, in the form of additives, and so on. This lack of understanding has almost halted the advancement in applications of the technique to various processes that essentially involve dispersions with impurities. This study investigates aqueous suspensions of CaCO3 at different concentrations (i.e., 5%, 10% and 20% mass/mass) with added impurities of MgCO3 (insoluble impurity), NaNO3 (soluble impurity) and sodium polyacrylate (soluble additive) at varying proportions (5%, 10%, 20% and 30% of the weight of CaCO3). The study characterizes and compares dispersion with and without impurity in order to demonstrate the possible ways in which addition of an impurity change the original acoustic attenuation spectrum of a dispersion. The study brings the conditions in which acoustic attenuation spectroscopy is capable of explaining that addition of an impurity will not change original particle size of the disperse medium.