Mechanochemistry of silica on jet milling

Fine grinding process of silica was carried out in a jet mill by varying the operational parameters such as feed rate, classifier rotational speed and grinding pressure. The size reduction and mechanochemical effect of silica take place simultaneously as the jet mill is an energy intensive grinding mill. The minimum particle size obtained was 3.15 μm with span value of 1.30 and crystallinity values of ground product ranging from 71% to 91%. The crystallite size of the ground silica ranged from 22.71 nm to 35.54 nm whilst the lattice strain ranged from 0.024 to 0.038. The results showed that mechanochemical effect of ground silica was affected by the operating parameters of the jet mill.