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Dustiness of fine and nanoscale powders.

ABSTRACT: Dustiness may be defined as the propensity of a powder to form airborne dust by a prescribed mechanical stimulus; dustiness testing is typically intended to replicate mechanisms of dust generation encountered in workplaces. A novel dustiness testing device, developed for pharmaceutical application, was evaluated in the dustiness investigation of 27 fine and nanoscale powders. The device efficiently dispersed small (mg) quantities of a wide variety of fine and nanoscale powders, into a small sampling chamber. Measurements consisted of gravimetrically determined total and respirable dustiness. The following materials were studied: single and multiwalled carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, and carbon blacks; fumed oxides of titanium, aluminum, silicon, and cerium; metallic nanoparticles (nickel, cobalt, manganese, and silver) silicon carbide, Arizona road dust; nanoclays; and lithium titanate. Both the total and respirable dustiness spanned two orders of magnitude (0.3-37.9% and 0.1-31.8% of the predispersed test powders, respectively). For many powders, a significant respirable dustiness was observed. For most powders studied, the respirable dustiness accounted for approximately one-third of the total dustiness. It is believed that this relationship holds for many fine and nanoscale test powders (i.e. those primarily selected for this study), but may not hold for coarse powders. Neither total nor respirable dustiness was found to be correlated with BET surface area, therefore dustiness is not determined by primary particle size. For a subset of test powders, aerodynamic particle size distributions by number were measured (with an electrical low-pressure impactor and an aerodynamic particle sizer). Particle size modes ranged from approximately 300 nm to several micrometers, but no modes below 100 nm, were observed. It is therefore unlikely that these materials would exhibit a substantial sub-100 nm particle contribution in a workplace.

SUBMITTER: Evans DE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3750099 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Background: Lignocellulosic biomass has many functionalities that hold huge potential for material, energy or chemistry applications. To support advanced applications, the biomass must be milled into ultrafine powder to increase reactivity. This milling unit operation needs to be fully mastered to deliver high-quality standard end-products. Here we studied the relationship between the characteristics of the starting lignocellulosic plant material and the properties of the resulting ultrafine powder in different ball-mill process routes. Methods: Two lignocellulosic biomasses (pine bark and wheat straw) with contrasted compositional and mechanical properties were milled using three ball-mill set-ups delivering different balances of impact force and attrition force. The resulting powders were analysed for particle characteristics (size, agglomeration extent, shape) and powder flow properties (compressibility, cohesion) using a dynamic powder rheometer. Results: Pine bark is more amenable to a fast particle size reduction than the fibrous wheat straw. The resulting pine bark powders appear less compressible but much more cohesive than the straw powders due to particle shape, density and composition factors. The mill set-up working by attrition as dominant mechanical force (vibratory ball mill) produced a mix of large, elongated particles and higher amounts of fines as it acts mainly by erosion, the resulting powder being more prone to agglomerate due to the abundance of fines. The mill set-up working by impact as dominant mechanical force (rotary ball mill) produced more evenly distributed particle sizes and shapes. The resulting powder is less prone to agglomerate due to a preferential fragmentation mechanism. Conclusions: The attrition-dominant mill yields powders with dispersed particle sizes and shapes and the poorest flow properties, while the impact-dominant mill yields more agglomeration-prone powders. The mill set-up working with impact and attrition as concomitant mechanical forces (stirred ball mill) produces powders with better reactivity and flow properties compared to rotary and vibratory mills.

Project description:To alleviate the heavy burden on landfilling, construction and demolition wastes (C&DWs) are recycled and reused as aggregates in cementitious materials. However, the inherent characteristics of recycled fine aggregates (RFA), such as the high crushing index and high-water absorption, magnify the reusing difficulty. Nevertheless, attributing to the high porosity and high level of calcium hydroxides existing in the old mortar, RFA is featured with a high specific surface area and a high alkalinity. These features are useful to augment the total photo-degradation of SO2 by nano-TiO2 (NT) intermixed mortar, leading RFA to be an excellent potential carrier to load nano-TiO2 and prepare the composite photocatalyst. Hence, this study proposed to load NT onto the surface of RFAs and river sands (RSs) (the control) by the soaking method, preparing composite photocatalysts denoted as NT@RFA and NT@RS, respectively. The prepared composite photocatalysts were then utilized as sands in photocatalytic mortar to evaluate for SO2 degradation. Experiments identified a 50% higher amount of NT was loaded onto the surface of FRA relative to the control. This higher loading amount plus higher alkalinity ultimately translated into a higher photocatalytic activity. In addition, the mortar containing NT@RFA exhibited 46.3% higher physiochemical absorption and 23.9% higher photocatalytic activity than that containing NT@RS. In addition, the durability, embodied by the reuse and anti-abrasive properties, of NT@RFA exceeded that of NT@RS. The overall findings reveal that the NT@RFA not only garners beneficial effect from the high porosity but also generates positive effect from the high alkalinity. Though a number of studies deal with building materials with NT, this study is the first to load NT onto RFA and prepare composite photocatalysts which were then used as fine aggregates in building materials. Consequently, this study proves the potential high-added-value reusability of RFA in green construction materials and provides a low-cost, high-efficiency approach to degrade atmospheric SO2.

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Dustiness of fine and nanoscale powders.

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