Encapsulation of nanoparticles by polymerization compounding in a gas/solid fluidized bed reactor

Abstract

For the first time, a fluidized bed reactor was used for encapsulating nanoparticles by the polymerization compounding approach using Ziegler-Natta catalysts. The polymerization reaction was carried out using a solvent-free process in a gas-phase reactor. This direct gas-solid reaction greatly simplified collecting the particles of interest after polymerization because none of the extra steps often found in encapsulation processes, such as filtering and drying, were performed in this work. The grafting of the catalyst to the original surface of particles was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Micrographs obtained by transmission electron microscopy confirmed the presence of a thin layer of polymer, in the order of a few nanometers, around the particles. The thickness of this coating was affected by the operating conditions of the process. The characterization of the modified particles with electron microscopy also revealed that zirconia nanoparticles tend to be coated in an agglomerated state, whereas aluminum particles were mostly individually encapsulated by the polymer. In addition, the effects of temperature and pressure were studied on the encapsulation process and a kinetic analysis was presented based on the available models in the literature. V

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