Continuous production of metal oxide nanoparticles via membrane emulsification-precipitation

Maria Medina-Llamas, Caitlin M. Taylor, Jing Ji, Jannis Wenk, Davide Mattia

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

A continuous and scalable method to produce metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) with control of both particle size and composition via membrane emulsification (ME) is reported for the first time using an oil-in-water emulsion and a tubular ceramic membrane (Dpore = 100 nm). Using titania (TiO2) NPs as a model material, a systematic investigation of different process parameters allowed minimizing the emulsion droplet size, yielding a low droplet diameter to membrane pore diameter ratio of less than 3, compared to literature values of up to 10. After calcination, TiO2 NPs as small as 10 ± 2 nm were obtained. The particles' composition was changed via nonmetal doping, with the incorporation of interstitial nitrogen and carbon in the TiO2 lattice, confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The TiO2 NPs showed to be active for the photocatalytic degradation of phenol under both UV and visible light. Productivity calculations showed that it is possible to obtain ∼2 kg of NPs per hour per meter square of the membrane, opening the way to the large-scale production of NPs with fine control over their size and composition.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)9085-9094
Number of pages10
JournalIndustrial and Engineering Chemistry Research
Volume59
Issue number19
Early online date21 Apr 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 May 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
M.M.-L. expresses her gratitude to the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) for a doctoral scholarship. C.M.T. was supported by an EPSRC-funded Centre for Doctoral Training integrated Ph.D. studentship (EP/L016354/1). D.M. acknowledges support from EPSRC (EP/P031382/1). XPS data collection was performed at the EPSRC National Facility for XPS (“HarwellXPS”), operated by Cardiff University and UCL, under contract no. PR16195. All data created during this research are openly available from the University of Bath data archived at: https://doi.org/10.15125/BATH-00795 .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Chemical Society.

Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Chemical Engineering
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

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