<p>A colloid of magnesium hydroxide is used to stabilize droplets of monomers before suspension polymerisation. The characteristics of precipitated magnesium hydroxide changes significantly during the first hours. The viscosity is high and flucctuating at first but decreases and becomes low and stable after a few hours. When the colloid ages the primary particles agglomerate into larger particles which increases in size by time due to, among other things, Oswald ripening and aggregation. This can cause problems with poor reproducibility in the production. Therefore, the purpose of this study was finding a way to age the colloid without an increase in particle size and without changing any other features. Several experiments were made to optimize the precipitation procedure and to find out what parameters that are most important. The results showed that the stirring rate and colloidal concentration have big influence.</p><p>Small amounts of chemicals that modifies the surface of the colloid was added. This made the particle size near constant over time and the colloid was aged for two months without increasing in size or changing other properties. This was confirmed by making microspheres that had the same characteristics as microspheres made with a fresh colloid.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:uu-6159 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Skoglund, Therese |
| Publisher | Uppsala University, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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