Nano Scale Grinding with High Energy Ball Mills

In this application note, planetary ball mills are used to grind aluminum oxide to produce particles in the nanometer range. Conditions are optimised for this “top down” method and resulting particle sizes are analysed. There are various methods to produce nano particles. The “bottom up” technique involves synthesizing the particles from atoms and molecules. With the “top down” method, the particles are reduced to nanometer size by grinding. A suitable tool for this method is a planetary ball mill, such as RETSCH’s PM 100, PM 200 or PM 400, which provides the necessary energy input for grinding down to the nanometer range.