A unified kinetic model for particle aggregation

A unified model has been developed that describes the kinetics of particle aggregation. The model is unique in the incorporation of surface chemical phenomena along with solution chemistry in the determination of the stability of a colloidal dispersion. The aggregation process is treated in a truly kinetic fashion, the main output from the model being the evolution of complete particle size distributions over time. The model was developed to interpret ry data and, as such, has the capacity to estimate a (variable) set of system parameters by fitting the size distribution over time data to that measured. It was found that the attachment distance, a parameter frequently approximated in practice, has a profound influence on the predicted aggregation kinetics as does the choice of a solid/solution interfacial model. Furthermore, simulation of relatively long-term aggregation, which was the principal focus of this work, indicates that values of the collision efficiency factor should be much smaller than those reported elsewhere in the literature.