My
feature-review article
(A
Review of Particle Shape Effects on Material Properties for Various Engineering
Applications: From Macro to Nanoscale)
published in Minerals Journal in 2023, ranked 2nd among the “Most Cited Articles
2023”.
It appears that the importance of particle shape on the properties of various
materials in various industries and applications is being increasingly explored.
This review is expected to serve as a springboard for new concepts and a
starting point for researchers wishing to investigate shape-based materials in
various materials science and development fields.
A wide variety of industrial
processes and applications have begun to benefit from advances made through the
study of particulate systems by applying the principles of particle
characterization in the production of chemicals, batteries, catalysis,
nanomaterials, pharmaceuticals, ceramics, and foods because particle shape has a
substantial impact on how they fracture, react, sinter, float, agglomerate, and
fluidize. Therefore, it is one of the key factors in predicting the behavior of
particles either individually or in group sin various engineering applications
from macroscale to nanoscale. Moreover, it is well known that as the shape of
the particles deviates from the ideal sphere, they behaved ifferently from the
homogeneous spherical particles that are traditionally used as models.
In other words, the differences in
particle size and shape of many materials from the macroscale to the nanoscale
are responsible for the difference in their behavior. Thus, it has been revealed
from the literature that the shape of the solid particles has a significant
impact on the selection of suitable process parameters and the accomplishment of
the ideal properties for the final product in many engineering disciplines for
various particulate systems from aggregate to nanoparticles.
Particle technologies have the potential to be very successful worldwide, but
the widespread adoption and applications of this technology are still not at the
desired level. It has been suggested that the shape of the particles should be
taken into account when operating and choosing processes or applications and
more quantitative research should be studied on these connections, since
particle shape is a primary property affecting many secondary properties for
many systems from macroscale to nanoscale.
Although this work presents some important conclusions on the impact of
particle- shape on their properties and behaviors in various processes for many
fields of engineering, there are many areas where further works experimentally
investigating the role of particle shape on their properties and processes could
be undertaken. Thus, it is hoped that in the future more quantitative
investigations related to particle shape effect should be performed in the field
of industrial applications.
“the
significance of particle shape in many industrial materials is frequently
disregarded or undervalued. However, particle shape may play a key role in
transforming a given industrial material into top-performing products”.