Though silanization of aluminum powder is currently used to improve its flow properties, for use as an alternative fuel source, there are a wide range of experimental parameters for the process and not all of them have been thoroughly explored. Until this is complete, it is unknown if the process is optimized in terms of time, efficiency, and effect. Herein, we report on a study into the effects of changes in humidity, degree of agitation, reaction temperature, and curing time upon the deposition of phenyl triethoxysilane into 20 μm (d) aluminum particles. We confirm the deposition of the coating via diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We then characterize the coated particles using apparent density measurements and Carney flow methods. Using analysis of variance, we find that, of the parameters explored, only changes in cure time and reaction temperature provide meaningful changes to the apparent density, while none of our parameters produced statistically significant changes in Carney flow values. Thus, we conclude that, when optimizing silanization of aluminum particles, environmental control of humidity is unneeded and that the reaction can be run with minimal agitation. The ability to largely ignore these parameters is a benefit to large-scale processing.

中文翻译：

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苯基三乙氧基硅烷偶联剂包覆铝粉合成参数分析及其对粉末流动行为的影响

尽管目前使用铝粉的硅烷化来改善其流动性能，以用作替代燃料源，但该过程的实验参数范围很广，并且并非所有参数都经过彻底探索。在完成之前，尚不清楚该过程是否在时间、效率和效果方面得到优化。在此，我们报告了一项关于湿度、搅拌程度、反应温度和固化时间变化对苯基三乙氧基硅烷沉积成 20 μm (d) 铝颗粒的影响的研究。我们通过漫反射红外光谱和 X 射线光电子能谱证实了涂层的沉积。然后，我们使用表观密度测量和卡尼流法来表征涂层颗粒。通过方差分析，我们发现，在所探索的参数中，只有固化时间和反应温度的变化才对表观密度产生有意义的变化，而我们的参数都没有对卡尼流量值产生统计上显着的变化。因此，我们得出的结论是，当优化铝颗粒的硅烷化时，不需要湿度的环境控制，并且反应可以在最小的搅拌下进行。很大程度上忽略这些参数的能力有利于大规模处理。