Topics

Particles suspended in air, mostly smaller than 1 micron, are called aerosols. They are mostly part of our daily life as airborne particles, and pollutants, but can have “good” medicinal uses, such as in inhalers. The program will have presentations on aerosol production using e. g. spray technologies, on how to functionalize them, if needed, as well as how we can measure them.

Nano-particle technology is evolving rapidly and more questions are arising. Are the particles safe? Can we produce them in large amounts? Do we have the technology in-house to produce them and how can we measure them and model the processes we are using to produce them? All these topics will be addressed in a series of sessions on production, functionalization and characterization of nano-particles from gas or liquid phase.

Through modeling we are able to understand more and more about what makes a single particle or a group of particles behave as they do. A lot of information we need about these particulate systems is yet to be discovered. Through the use of models we can find out what it is that we need to measure. On the other hand, we learn a lot by looking at the macro scale of particle behavior, which helps us establish the basic models. The understanding about particles is growing by using the best computational principles and this will be addressed over several sessions.

Producing particles by granulation has been done for decades, even centuries. And still we are struggling with answering the question of how we can make a granule perform as we want. Many granulated products show great performance when controlled. Can we explain and predict this? In fact, there is a lot of “art” present in this field. In the last few years, big steps have been set in the understanding of granulation processes, which has increased our scientific know-how. Modern measuring techniques and better models help us with this understanding.

How do we combine the knowledge present in the particle technology with that in the field of material sciences to create new particulate materials which can be used in the fields of optical electronics, solar cells, catalytic materials, light-weight products, foods, and pharmaceutical products with specific properties? We need to bridge the gap between the two fields to develop new functionalized particles or formulated products. Much effort is put in this area of material science and particulate systems and already new products have emerged on the market showing great potential.