I have a silica in ethanol suspension with a concentration of 5.53wt.%. Please, I would like to know how to do the calculation if I want to reduce the concentration to let say 3.5%, 2.0% etc. thanks
Ethanol can be added to reduce concentration. As suspension is diluted by added mass of ethanol (Me), suspension's mass increases from Mi to Mf, being Mi + Me = Mf. For the suspended solid, mass balance reads: Ri·Mi = Rf·Mf, being Ri and Rf its initial and final mass concentrations (mass of solid : mass of suspension). As we eliminate Mf between last equations, one obtains: Me = [(Ri/Rf) -1]·Mi. By considering ethanol density (ρe) and initial density of suspension (ρi), the volume of ethanol to be added to initial volume of suspension (Vi) will be given by: Ve = (ρi/ρe)·[(Ri/Rf) -1]·Vi. An alternative simpler but approximate expression, Vi = (Rf/Ri)·Vf, can be obtained from the above written mass balance for the suspended solid, while accepting that initial density of suspension closely matches final density.
For a recent but somewhat related question, also dealing with the concentration of a suspension, you may check: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Smart_way_to_calculate_volume_fraction_of_a_solid_ferrofluid_in_a_solvent_or_solids_fraction