Projects
Projects: Projects for Investigator |
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| Reference Number | EP/P002781/1 | |
| Title | TAILORING THE MICRO- AND MESO-POROSITY OF SPHERICAL SILICA PARTICLES USING NANO/MICROBUBBLES AS TEMPLATES | |
| Status | Completed | |
| Energy Categories | Not Energy Related 75%; Hydrogen and Fuel Cells(Hydrogen, Hydrogen storage) 25%; |
|
| Research Types | Basic and strategic applied research 100% | |
| Science and Technology Fields | ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Chemical Engineering) 100% | |
| UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation | Not Cross-cutting 100% | |
| Principal Investigator |
Dr M Dragosavac No email address given Chemical Engineering Loughborough University |
|
| Award Type | Standard | |
| Funding Source | EPSRC | |
| Start Date | 01 May 2017 | |
| End Date | 31 August 2018 | |
| Duration | 16 months | |
| Total Grant Value | £100,893 | |
| Industrial Sectors | No relevance to Underpinning Sectors | |
| Region | East Midlands | |
| Programme | NC : Engineering | |
| Investigators | Principal Investigator | Dr M Dragosavac , Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University (100.000%) |
| Industrial Collaborator | Project Contact , Agilent Technologies UK Ltd (0.000%) Project Contact , Micropore Technologies Ltd (0.000%) |
|
| Web Site | ||
| Objectives | ||
| Abstract | Applications such as hydrogen storage, separation, catalysis, delivery of poorly soluble drugs all demand internally micro- or meso-porous inorganic materials, with specific requirements for pore size and available surface area, which can be produced reliably, easily and cheaply. Therefore there is a great need to improve existing methods for production of porous materials.The proposal aims to investigate, by experiment, entirely novel micro- and meso-porous silica particles using nano/microbubbles as templating material. Recently published developments on the stability and long life of nano/microbubbles in aqueous and organic solvents have paved the way for their application in various fields and the proposed research intends to use stable nano/microbubbles to tune the internal porosity/architecture of an inorganic material. The work aims to identify the main parameters influencing the nano/microbubble size and relate it to the resulting internal structure as well as those influencing the silica particle size and uniformity. An efficient method (ultrasound sonicator and cavitation venturi tube) will be used to generate the nano/microbubbles and their size and stability will be validated allowing their use as templating material within the silica droplets to tailor the internal structure of spherical silica particles. Improved production of silica droplets containing nano/microbubbles using membrane emulsification will be a significant leap toward reducing surfactant templating methods and slow batch operation to grow silica particles.The aim is to facilitate the development of an eco-friendly process (that does not rely on templating surfactants) for the production of highly uniform porous spherical silica particles.Although silica will be used as a case study material, the process has the potential to be applied to tailor the internal architecture of both inorganic and polymeric nanostructures. Such nanostructures have great potential for applications in drug delivery, energy (e.g. hydrogen) storage as well as catalyst supports. | |
| Publications | (none) |
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| Final Report | (none) |
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| Added to Database | 18/02/19 | |
