Abstract
The Class F fly ash has been subjected to high energy ball milling and has been converted into nanostructured material. The nano structured fly ash has been characterized for its particle size by using particle size analyzer, specific surface area with the help of BET surface area apparatus, structure by X-ray diffraction studies and FTIR, SEM and TEM have been used to study particle aggregation and shape of the particles. On ball milling, the particle size got reduced from 60 μm to 148 nm by 405 times and the surface area increased from 0.249 m2/gm to 25.53 m2/gm i.e. by more than 100%. Measurement of surface free energy as well as work of adhesion found that it increased with increased duration of ball milling. The crystallite was reduced from 36.22 nm to 23.01 nm for quartz and from 33.72 nm to 16.38 nm for mullite during ball milling to 60 h. % crystallinity reduced from 35% to 16% during 60 h of ball milling because of destruction of quartz and hematite crystals and the nano structured fly ash is found to be more amorphous. Surface of the nano structured fly ash has become more active as is evident from the FTIR studies. Morphological studies revealed that the surface of the nano structured fly ash is more uneven and rough and shape is irregular, as compared to fresh fly ash which are mostly spherical in shape.
Highlights
Nanoscience and nanotechnology has become the buzzword in recent years since its inception in 1990’s
According to the calculations carried out based on Energy Dispersed X-ray analysis (EDX) analysis the overall composition of fly ash obtained for this study consists of major proportion of SiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O3, which seems up to 97.42%
The size reduction of fly ash from micrometer level to nano levels has been achieved by high energy ball milling
Summary
Nanoscience and nanotechnology has become the buzzword in recent years since its inception in 1990’s. Keywords High energy ball mill Á Fly ash Á Nanostructured materials Á Quartz Á Mullite The reduction in particle size of fly ash from micron level to the nano level was carried out using a high-energy planetary ball mill (Pulverisette, Fritsch, Germany).
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