Particle generation with liquid carbon dioxide emulsions

Abstract

Spray drying is a common technique for particle generation. However, due to limitations in the droplet size, the production of solid submicron particles using conventional atomizers has proven to be challenging. With the aim of overcoming this limitation, the generation and expansion of emulsions of an aqueous solution and liquid carbon dioxide with a subsequent drying step was investigated. Potassium chloride concentrations in the solution between 0.1 and 10 wt. % and mass loads of the aqueous disperse phase between 0.01 and 0.09 were used in order to study their impact on the droplet and particle size. For the lowest potassium chloride concentration, median particle diameters in the submicron size range were measured for all mass loads of the disperse phase.