E.i. Dupont De Nemours and Company

Jodi Lynn Witt

Stephan Claude De La Veaux

Juergen Kurt Plischke

Scott Rickbeil Frerichs

Christian Normand

Stephen Erwin Lyke

Joseph M Shekiro, Jr

Xuqing Gu

Steve Mirabella

Juergen K Plischke

There is described a process for preparing metal oxide particles which are substantially free of coarse tail from an oxidizing agent and a vaporous metal reactant in a flow reactor; comprising, (a) directing a flow of the metal reactant into a contacting region of the flow reactor; comprising (a) passing a flow of oxidizing agent through a high temperature zone of the flow reactor to form a flow of hot oxidizing agent and directing the flow of the hot oxidizing agent onto the contacting region of the flow reactor at a flow condition sufficient to form a reaction stream comprising a flow of hot oxidizing agent, a flow of metal reactant and a diffusive flow of the hot oxidizing agent and the metal reactant, the temperature of the hot oxidizing agent being at least sufficient to initiate oxidation of the metal reactant in the diffusive flow; (c) passing the reaction stream into a reaction zone of the flow reactor, while simultaneously introducing a flow of an upper cooling fluid substantially coaxially with the reaction stream to form a fluid curtain which surrounds the reaction stream; (d) maintaining the fluid curtain while the metal oxide particles form within the diffusive flow of the reaction stream and until at least a major portion of the reaction stream is cooled to a temperature below the temperature at which metal oxide particles coalesce; and (e) separating the metal oxide particles from the reaction stream.

Process for making metal oxide nanoparticles

There is described an apparatus for making metal oxide particles which are substantially free of coarse tail from an oxidizing agent and a metal reactant in a flow reactor. The apparatus can be a concentric tubular flow reactor comprising a substantially funnel-shaped reactant contacting region located adjacent to a reaction zone which is able to direct a flow of a hot oxidizing agent towards a flow of the metal reactant to form a reaction stream which flows downstream into a reaction zone, whereby the hot oxidizing agent of the reaction stream is able to surround the flow of metal reactant sufficient to prevent the metal reactant from contacting the wall of the reactant contacting region and forming scale on the wall. A cooling fluid conduit being able to direct a flow of a cooling fluid into the reaction zone to flow coaxially with the reaction stream and to form a fluid curtain between the reaction stream and a baffle, which defines at least a portion of the reaction zone, while the metal reactant and hot oxidizing agent within the reaction stream react to form the metal oxide nanopowder prevents scale from forming on the baffle.

Apparatus for making metal oxide nanopowder

The disclosure is directed to a process for isolating solids from a purification purge stream comprising an impurity present as a solid, wherein the purification purge stream is substantially free of chlorides other than titanium tetrachloride and vanadium chloride, the process comprising the steps of: (a) atomizing the purification purge stream comprising titanium tetrachloride as a liquid and an impurity present as a solid; (b) drying solids in the atomized purification purge stream by contacting the atomized stream with a titanium tetrachloride vapor stream such that the combined streams reach a temperature of at least about 140&#xb0; C. to vaporize the liquid titanium tetrachloride, wherein the titanium tetrachloride vapor is substantially free of chlorides other than those of titanium and vanadium, and substantially free of non-condensable gases comprising CO, CO, N, or mixtures thereof; and (c) separating the impurity present as a solid from the vaporized titanium tetrachloride. The separated vanadium solids may be further processed to recover valuable by products.

Process for separating solids from a purification purge stream

Growing community of inventors

New Castle, DE, United States of America

Jodi Lynn Witt