(223b) Model-Assisted Scale-up of Nanoparticle Synthesis by Flame Spray Pyrolysis

Flame Spray Pyrolysis (FSP) aerosol reactors have become an increasingly promising method for nanoparticle production and a broad range of new nanoparticles has been developed in the past decade (Teoh et al., 2010). Most of this development took place at the lab-scale and now requires transfer to an industrial manufacturing environment. In order to facilitate scale-up of the FSP technology to a cost-efficient production process a better understanding of the fluid and particle dynamics underlying particle growth in spray flames is still required.

Here, the flame spray process is investigated computationally and experimentally by the example of ZrO₂ nanoparticle synthesis. For a lab-scale FSP reactor (Madler et al., 2002), spray, fluid, combustion and aerosol dynamics are solved to predict product nanoparticle characteristics by using a commercial CFD solver without adjustable parameters or need of experimental input data. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, Phase-Doppler Anemomentry and nanoparticle sampling in-situ the flame are employed for characterizing the temperature, velocity and species profiles of the flame reactor and are used for validation of the simple and robust computational code. Based on the model, design correlations for process scale-up are developed and it is shown how the model can assist in process optimization and reactor development.

References:

Mädler, L., Kammler, H.K., Mueller, R. and Pratsinis, S.E. (2002), J. Aerosol Sci. 33, 369-389.

Teoh, W.Y., Amal, R. and Mädler, L. (2010), Nanoscale 2, 1324-1347.