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”.