Statistical model of the powder flow regulation by nanomaterials

TL;DR

This paper presents a statistical model quantifying how nanomaterials reduce van der Waals forces between powder particles, improving flow by decreasing adhesion, with predictions validated against experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative statistical analysis of nanomaterial effects on powder adhesion, revealing a universal scaling law for force reduction.

Findings

Nanoadsorbates significantly decrease van der Waals forces.

The force reduction follows a material-independent scaling law.

Simulation results align well with experimental observations.

Abstract

Fine powders often tend to agglomerate due to van der Waals forces between the particles. These forces can be reduced significantly by covering the particles with nanoscaled adsorbates, as shown by recent experiments. In the present work a quantitative statistical analysis of the effect of powder flow regulating nanomaterials on the adhesive forces in powders is given. Covering two spherical powder particles randomly with nanoadsorbates we compute the decrease of the mutual van der Waals force. The dependence of the force on the relative surface coverage obeys a scaling form which is independent of the used materials. The predictions by our simulations are compared to the experimental results.