CAVITATION DEPOSITION OF ZnS NANOPARTICLES INTO COMPOSITE WITH MONTMORILLONITE PARTICLES

In this paper we report on ZnS nanoparticles produced by precipitation of zinc acetate and sodium sulphide and stabilized by cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in aqueous media and deposited on montmorillonite (MMT). For the deposition a new method based on intensive cavitation was used. The montmorillonite carrier was first disintegrated by intense turbulent mixing in an ultrasonic field into a fine aqueous nanodispersion and then vacuum-freeze dried at -24 °C. The dry montmorillonite aggregates were then added into the stable pure aqueous nanodispersion of ZnS and CTAB. In the regime of intensive microcavitation flow in the ultrasonic field, the ZnS nanoparticles were deposited on montmorillonite particles to form the ZnS-CTA-MMT nanocomposites. Subsequently, the system was dried by vacuum freeze-drying at -24 °C. Repeating the procedure several times, we can produce the stable ZnS-CTA-MMT nanocomposite powder with a significantly higher content of the ZnS nanoparticles.