Titanium and sonicators

Not sure I put this in the right category but I am after your advice on safety. I have a Heilscher Sonicator and was told by the rep that as long as I let the solution set for 24 hours I can decant it and will leave behind any titanium that is ejected by the probe without having to filter. The idea here is that the particles of Ti are large enough that they will settle to the bottom and stay there after decanting. As much as I like to believe people I would like to hear what you all have to say about this. Thanks

1 Like

I think @Rowan suggested using a sonication horn to avoid this but had a low volume througpĂ­ut.

1 Like

If you are making any kind of nanoemulsified product, I would highly suggest filtration through a 0.22u PES filter. This will remove any metal material that might come off of the sonication horn.

If you are sonicating for other things then it’s really going to depend what the end product is and if there is further downstream processing that makes you feel confident enough that all of the titanium may be removed.

3 Likes

You could also probably centrifuge it - if you didn’t want to wait.

I haven’t seen any science that says letting it settle for 24 hours will be sufficient for separation.

And filtering seems pretty easy (although, you would need to know the size of the particles to be certain you are capturing them.

And there are also other methods that don’t use titanium horns - if you want to emulsify, without potentially dropping bits of horn everywhere. -shrug-

2 Likes

theres-such-a-thing-as-too-much-horn-talk-and-a-fella-oughta-be-fuckin-aware-of-it

4 Likes

Any Hydrophilic membrane will do, Glass fiber- nylon - PES. You only need to go down to .45U to filter out the titanium - just read about membranes in oil in water applications you may find something cheaper with the same flow rate. You can also go hydrophobic and remediate any heavy metals from oils as well.

Dont buy capsule filters get a stainless steel housing and buy larger sized membranes. I got 20 inches and they move, back fill after use and autoclave immediately after to be able to reuse membranes. the 20 inch easily gets 3x the liquid volume thru around the same amount of time as 1x in 6 inch. Not to mention you dont have pressure limitations from the stainless housing - and can increase your flow rate

Don’t just take their word test it and send it for r&d if doing so can speed up/improve your process no harm in attempt and non coa test.

3 Likes

--------edit----------

2 Likes

Thanks everyone this was helpful. :wink:

You can use a flowcell that keeps the sonicator tip separated from the process, but i agree that in order to properly finish your material it needs to be nano filtered either way

2 Likes