Abstract
Nanoparticles often form agglomerates during their manufacturing process. When nanoparticles form agglomerates, their inherent properties cannot be fully exploited. In this study, we attempted to establish a conventional method to evaluate the fracture strength of agglomerates into smaller parts. We used a commercially available nano-indentation instrument with a flat indenter tip. We chose calcium carbonate nanoparticles with stearic acid coatings as model materials. It was found that the more fatty acid that is coated on the particle surface, the stronger the agglomerates become. The technique we propose in this study can be used to rapidly evaluate the fracture strength of nanoparticle agglomerates.
Highlights
Nanoparticles are receiving widespread attention due to their continuously increasing applications in various industries
Some special properties of composite materials can be enhanced by the addition of nanoparticles, due to their large active surface area
In handling powder consisting of nanoparticles, agglomeration is an important phenomenon that can occur through several engineering processes including synthesis, filtering, hot-air drying, delivering, and storing
Summary
Nanoparticles are receiving widespread attention due to their continuously increasing applications in various industries. Nano-indentation is a reliable technique used to determine the micromechanical properties of single particles [6], thin-films [7], bulk materials [8], architected nanocomposites [9], and so on With this technique, indentation load can be quantitatively measured as a function of penetration depth of the indentation tip into the specimen surface with nanometer depth resolution. Schilde et al succeeded in measuring micromechanical properties of agglomerates (size: ~10–15 μm) of alumina nanoparticles (size: ~50–100 nm) with different primary particle morphologies (cuboid, disc, and needles) via nano-indentation using a Berkovich tip [13]. We present preliminary data to establish a conventional fracture strength test method for nanoparticle agglomerates using a commercially available nano-indentation system equipped with a flat indenter tip. As the agglomerates are not ideal spheres, we crushed many agglomerates and calculated the average fracture strength
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