Mixtures of nanoparticles and nanocomposites, manufactured using nanoparticles as building blocks, have unique properties owing to small particle/grain size, and large interface area between individual nano-sized constituents. These properties have a great potential to improve performance of drugs, biomaterials, catalysts, energetic materials etc. However, to fully employ this potential, nanoparticles should be mixed at nanoscale level, which is a difficult task because they tend to form aggregates on the order of microns. Therefore, a major challenge in utilizing nanoparticles is to achieve their mixing at nano-scale level.

In this project, the mixing of nano-powders in an environmentally benign fluidized bed system was explored. The objective of this study is to explore the homogeneity of nanoparticle mixtures obtained using various types of fluidize bed systems, and determining what variables will improve mixing quality and why. The fluidized bed systems studied were conventional versus magnetically assisted fluidized bed systems. All of the fluidized bed methods are environmentally benign dry mixing techniques. The characterization of the resulting nanoparticle mixtures were conducted using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) equipped with Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS).