EFFECT OF NUCLEATION PROFILE ON PARTICLE-SIZE DISTRIBUTION

Nucleation transients ale important features in the reactive generatio n of monodisperse colloids fi om solution. Many previous theoretical i nvestigations, both analytical and numerical, have addressed rite role s of colloid aggregation or of direct growth film solution. Few have a ddressed the role of nucleation transients on the size distribution. T he population balance model was used to study the effect of nucleation transients on an aggregating colloidal dispersion, (To simplify the p roblem. growth was neglected) The focus was an whether, under the acti on of aggregation alone, extended and divided nucleation periods in so me cases can lead to a very narrow particle-size distribution. Our res ults support previous treatments (Look et al., 1990; Bogush and Zukosk i, 1991b) suggesting this is the case. Our general approach also offer s additional insights, such as strategies to manipulate the nucleation transients to independently tune the average particle size and the va liance of the distribution.