DEVELOPMENT OF FLOW/STERIC FIELD-FLOW FRACTIONATION AS A ROUTINE PROCESS CONTROL METHOD

FLOW/STERIC FIELD-FLOW FRACTIONATION (FLOW/STFFF) IS A RECENTLY DEVELOPED HIGH SPEED METHOD WITH EXTRAORDINARY ABILITIES TO SEPARATE PARTICULATE MATERIALS WITH DIAMETERS ROUGHLY IN THE 1-100 UM RANGE. THE OBJECT OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO EXAMINE THE POTENTIAL OF CONVERTING THIS RESEARCH FINDING INTO A FAST AND RELIABLE PRACTICAL TOOL FOR INDUSTRIAL PROCESS CONTROL. THIS METHOD WILL BE STUDIED FOR ITS POSSIBLE ROUTINE APPLICATION TO SPHERICAL AS WELL ASIRREGULAR SHAPED PARTICLES OBTAINED AS PRODUCTS FROM FINE PARTICLE MANUFACTURING PROCESSES. IN FLOW/STFFF, PARTICLES ARE SUBJECTED TO A CROSSFLOW FIELD WHILE CARRIED ALONG BY A CARRIER LIQUID IN A RIBBON-LIKE THIN CHANNEL. SINCE PARTICLES ELUTE ON THE BASIS OF THEIR SIZES (AND INDEPENDENT OF THEIR DENSITIES), ONE CAN OBTAIN DIRECT INFORMATION ABOUT THE SIZE AND SIZE DISTRIBUTION FROM ELUTION PROFILES OR FRACTOGRAMS. AS OPPOSED TO EXISTING METHODS FOR ROUTINE PARTICLE SIZE ANALYSIS, THE PROPOSED METHOD SHOULD BE RELATIVELY SIMPLE AND COST EFFECTIVE AND YET POSSESSES ENORMOUS POTENTIAL FOR THE HIGH RESOLUTION ANALYSIS OF MANY SIMPLE AND COMPLEX PARTICULATE SYSTEMS. THE ANALYSIS TIME WITH THIS METHOD IS 1-5 MINUTES FOR A SAMPLE AND IS THUS SUITABLE FOR PROCESS CONTROL FEEDBACK.