Plasma Treated Titanium Dioxide Particles to Prepare stable Aqueous Suspensions for Ink Formulations

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The dispersion of solid particles in a liquid to form a stable suspension is an important technological challenge. A specific example of such a challenge is the dispersion of titanium dioxide nanoparticles in water for the preparation of opaque inks for the printing industry. The current approach involves the use of surfactants coupled with heavy mechanical stirring and milling to create a suspension that will be stable for a limited time. The improvement of methods to suspend titanium dioxide particles in water would allow our partner, Verajet Inkjet, to produce unique inkjet inks having a much longer lifetime and better performances that competing products. Over the recent years, our laboratory has developed a unique expertise to readily and efficiently generate stable suspensions of nanoparticles in various liquids. We use a reactive plasma, an ionized gas created by an electrical discharge, to functionalize the surface of the particles with polar functional groups and thereby improving the hydrophilic character of the particles. One of our most successful developments has been to functionalization carbon nanotubes using ethane/oxygen plasmas allowing the preparation of nanotube suspensions stable over long periods (years). The objective of this project is to apply a similar methodology to the generation of stable TiO2 suspensions. We will initially investigate the functionalization of small quantities of as-received powders using our current equipment. The main goal will be to identify the functional groups grafted on the TiO2 particles. In parallel, we will recommission our in-flight functionalization equipment (from studies carried on over the 2005-2010 period) and perform a preliminary assessment of its suitability for the intended application as it bears potential for scalability.