Ultrasonic agglomeration-fragmentation of diamond nanoparticles

A lot of practical applications of nanoparticles assume a technological stage of introduction of particles into liquid. Meanwhile, particles could have a poor wettability. Nanostructural agglomerates contain micro- and nanopores filled with air. External impact is necessary to defragment these agglomerates. Ultrasonic treatment is often used for these purposes. Ultrasonic impact can break the agglomerate to original particles and can serve coagulation and growth of the sizes of the agglomerate. We have found the criterion of the leading mechanism (fragmentation or agglomeration) at ultrasonic processing of suspensions of nanodiamond in this work. Dynamics of the change of particles’ sizes at ultrasonic processing is considered theoretically and experimentally.