OPTIMIZATION OF OPERATING VARIABLES FOR PRODUCTION OF NANOPARTICLES USING RESPONSE SURFACE MODELING

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of operating parameters such as ball loading (J), solid mass fraction (C_m), pH of the suspension, and grinding time (t) on particle size distribution for the production of nano mineral particles in a stirred ball mill using response surface modeling. The particle size is arrived at by the method of Rosin-Rammler-Bennett distribution rather than by the average diameter method. Box-Behnken design is employed to arrive at the number of trials required. The results obtained show that particle size decreased with the increase in ball loading, pH, and grinding time, but not solid mass fraction. Moreover, optimum (i.e., minimum particle size) value of pH and solid mass fraction is found to be 12 and 0.3 respectively for the studied material, silica.