Characterizations of the evolving properties during the milling time of Wood Fly Ash Nanoparticles (WFA-NPs)

Wood Fly Ash (WFA) as a waste product from the combustion of wood has been regarded as environmental pollution since the generation of wood fly ash is much across the continent predominantly in the villages and most cities of the world. In recent time, effective and reliable utilization of WFA has been developed in areas like filler, additive, aggregate, reinforcement, water purification, activated carbon and most especially construction industries. Its efficiency and performance have been traced to whether is in the form of nano-, micro-, and macro- particles. Effects of milling time on WFA has been studied, its characterizations using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) has been studied. The SEM magnification was set to 1000x at 50 μm and the milling time was carried out at 0, 20, 40 and 60 mins. Digital Vibratory Disc Milling Machine (VDMM) rated 380V/50 Hz at 940 rpm was used for the milling. WFA was received at micro-sized particles, it was washed with distilled water to remove impurities and dry in an oven set at 80° C for 48 hours then sieved according to ASTM standard using 75 μm size. The particles size got reduced from 75 μm to average diameter of 200 nm. It was established in the study that the duration of the milling affects volume, surface area, particle size, pore size distributions, microstructure and some other mechanical properties as well as the morphology of the powder.