Google 'comminution limit'. I suspect you'll not be able to achieve what you propose via a ball mill.  As Drexler put it 'the difference between micro and nano is the difference between an elephant and a ladybug'....

Hi Mohammed

As I know in all laboratories of our universities you can not get a particles of nano scale by milling. Good Luck 

Hi,

There are many articles about that. I sent few of them. 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248454348_BST_ceramics_Effect_of_attrition_milling_on_dielectric_properties?ev=srch_pub

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257613912_The_electrical_properties_of_chemically_obtained_barium_titanate_improved_by_attrition_milling?ev=srch_pub

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311977968_Accelerated_formation_of_BaTiO3_ceramics_with_mechanochemical_processing_in_different_liquids

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305729376_Effects_of_Ultrasonication_and_Conventional_Mechanical_Homogenization_Processes_on_the_Structures_and_Dielectric_Properties_of_BaTiO3_Ceramics

Article BST ceramics: Effect of attrition milling on dielectric properties

Article The electrical properties of chemically obtained barium tita...

Article Accelerated formation of BaTiO3 ceramics with mechanochemica...

Article Effects of Ultrasonication and Conventional Mechanical Homog...

Hi,by using ultrasonic despersion

See “Ultrafine Grinding with Laboratory Ball Mills”

http://www.retsch.com/dl.php?file_id=53e4b583-5910-4a88-82b7-636500000000

You will not be able to reduce the size of particles through ball milling. I will suggest you, use microwave assisted method of nanoparticles synthesis.

Comminution limit.  See: J E Field, M Farhat, S M Walley ‘Comminution limit (CL) of particles and possible implications for pumped storage reservoirs’ J Mater Sci., (2014), 49, 3780–3784, DOI 10.1007/s10853-014-8089-3

Also discussed in:

August 3rd 2010 Comminution - history and laws

https://www.brainshark.com/malvern/vu?pi=242583221&text=M021507

and:

October 6th, 2016 Controlling powder bulk density by optimizing particle size and shape distribution

https://www.brainshark.com/malvern/vu?pi=271602698&b=1&tx=120486&c1=22

Dear all, 

I really do appreciate your kind respond and knowledgeable discussion. I would say that I have been looking for researchers that can decrease the Micro particles size to nano scale, I found this work for example, " Nanocrystalline/nanoparticle ZnO synthesized by high energy ball milling process"    which is published in Elsevier, they converted powder with average particle size of 8 micrometer, to about 60 nanometer for about 8 hr milling time. 

now I am trying to follow the same procedure, using a surfactant such amino silane, to prevent agglomeration during milling and also assisted the milling procedure ultrasonically. by the way, I am not looking for controlling the particle shape.

Article Nanocrystalline/nanoparticle ZnO synthesized by high energy ...

Take a look at the bottom right picture in the publication.  Shows a mass of fused sub- and post micron particles.  While the individual .primary particles may be in the < 100 nm  region (and the surface area may be > 60 m2/cm3) , the transport properties reflect the whole bulk mass of fused particles.

Not sure how one could control particle shape. As Gaudin indicated in 1939, milling does not fundamentally alter the shape of particles as they cleave along recognized crystal planes typically. 

You may find people that tell you that they can do this type of milling and milling for extended times with huge amounts of appropriate stabilizer, using tiny ceramic balls, in a colloid mill, can produce suspensions approaching and smaller than 100 nm.  But it's a hard way to go about to produce such materials.  I wish you luck.

 Dear Mr. Obeid,

We found that 'Ball Milling' is the only method for preparing the nanoparticles from microparticles. However, one should take some precautions, for choosing the ball milling machine, the balls and the milling time. Some people also use some mediating solvents but it should also be used with caution. There are different types of milling machines, e.g., milling machine having a rotating cylindrical container along its axis horizontally, planetary milling machine, etc. We found that the planetary machine cannot be used without a mediating solution because after a while the milled powder settles down at the bottom while it is not the case with the other simple milling machine. If one uses the mediating solution it may also help in agglomerating the particles and one may not be able to prepare nano size particles. However, the other kind simple machine takes a long time (may be a week's time for milling) but helps in preparing nanoparticles of ~20 nm size. Of course, it also depends on the hardness of the material to be milled. The balls used must have more hardness than the material. Moreover, a container with teflon lining is found to be good for this purpose.

Good luck!

--- P D Sahare, University of Delhi, Delhi, India 

The discussion so far was very useful. I want to know the type of ball milling jar which can be used to reduce the size of Nickel based EWAC 1004 EN. Please help me in this regard.

Thanks everyone for sharing their experience.

Hello everyone, I want to make nano sized crude extract of marine algae and compare their antimicrobial activity with macro sized particle of the same extract. What is the best method? Can i follow ball milling method? Kindly inbox your suggestions. Thanks in advance.

Ball milling is one of the option You can try

Dear C. Prabhakar Reddy,

Thanks for your suggestion.

Using Ball mill is mainly for metallic particles. Are you looking for Algae nano particles? Then you may kindly check with Chemistry researches

So, C. Prabhakar Reddy, how do explain the use of ball mills in mining, cement, ceramics, pigments, and the pharmaceutical industries?

Dear Prabakar reddy,

yes i searching for algal biomass. I want make nanopowders from algal crude extract

You can try using homogenize. I had used this technique to crush at molecular level water and diesel which are not miscible normally

Dear C. Reddy thanks for your update. Let me try with it.

actually am faced with a similar problem but with different material. How do I reduce the size of macrosized white powder to nanosized powder?

Ronald Ssebadduka You don't. Nanopowder is an oxymoron. Google 'comminution limit'.

but I need something smaller! How can I do that?

Ronald Ssebadduka You need a bottom up process such as crystallization or sol gel. You do not tell us what you 'different material' is. On RG it's best to start a separate thread/new question rather than hijacking another.