If you start with fully dispersed materials and observe agglomeration upon mixing into water or alcohol, your method for mixing must be examined. Do you use ultrasonics to attempt deagglomeration? Do you know the degree to which the particle size distribution changes when you mix your nanoparticles with water or alcohol? Can you live with the amount of agglomeration occurring? What is your current process for mixing?

I produce nanodiamond through a detonation process and have investigated many process-driven deagglomeration strategies* for particles ranging from 10 - 110 nanometers (*rather than chemical strategies, such as surfactants, or milling, which contaminates the nanodiamond). One interesting approach I would like to share with you was shown to me through a Swedish company. They mix ultra fine powders in liquid nitrogen and boil the liquid to create dense vapour containing fully dispersed dry nano powders.

Here's an idea to consider: Perhaps with water and alcohol there is a combination of temperature and pressure that creates a similar effect to the liquid nitrogen dispersion approach. By dispersing your powders in a turbulent and dense supercritical liquid state of your medium, you could then potentially control the rate at which you cool and further condense the system to a liquid at standard temperature and pressure to maintain full dispersion and achieve your goal.

A simple way to test this: add powder + liquid to a high pressure vessel, boil aggressively for an appropriate amount of time at T & P that provide the ideal density, cool the system to room temperature, open the vessel and observe. Alternatively, you could try adding powder + liquid to a closed system and boil the liquid under vacuum to produce a dense vapour that travels through a cooling section where it condenses, hopefully in a dispersed format.

You could even try multiple stages of microwave-assisted heating followed by cooling. Imagine the physicality of an agglomerated particle: single crystals attracted and stuck together because of the properties of your medium that you wish to disperse your particles in. By blasting that medium between the crystals with enough heat to convert it to gas, the particles are blown apart and participate in the chaos of the supercritical gaseous state as dispersed individual crystals.

I know it's just an idea and not an answer, however, there are truly no answers in life, only deeper questions, and there are even no true questions either - asking merely reveals the edge of what we see and believe to be true about 'what is' and 'how things work' without necessarily knowing for certain if any of that is accurate. That's why trying something new is always a good option to consider. Good luck - I know you'll figure out a way to make your system work.

If you start with fully dispersed materials and observe agglomeration upon mixing into water or alcohol, your method for mixing must be examined. Do you use ultrasonics to attempt deagglomeration? Do you know the degree to which the particle size distribution changes when you mix your nanoparticles with water or alcohol? Can you live with the amount of agglomeration occurring? What is your current process for mixing?

I produce nanodiamond through a detonation process and have investigated many process-driven deagglomeration strategies* for particles ranging from 10 - 110 nanometers (*rather than chemical strategies, such as surfactants, or milling, which contaminates the nanodiamond). One interesting approach I would like to share with you was shown to me through a Swedish company. They mix ultra fine powders in liquid nitrogen and boil the liquid to create dense vapour containing fully dispersed dry nano powders.

Here's an idea to consider: Perhaps with water and alcohol there is a combination of temperature and pressure that creates a similar effect to the liquid nitrogen dispersion approach. By dispersing your powders in a turbulent and dense supercritical liquid state of your medium, you could then potentially control the rate at which you cool and further condense the system to a liquid at standard temperature and pressure to maintain full dispersion and achieve your goal.

A simple way to test this: add powder + liquid to a high pressure vessel, boil aggressively for an appropriate amount of time at T & P that provide the ideal density, cool the system to room temperature, open the vessel and observe. Alternatively, you could try adding powder + liquid to a closed system and boil the liquid under vacuum to produce a dense vapour that travels through a cooling section where it condenses, hopefully in a dispersed format.

You could even try multiple stages of microwave-assisted heating followed by cooling. Imagine the physicality of an agglomerated particle: single crystals attracted and stuck together because of the properties of your medium that you wish to disperse your particles in. By blasting that medium between the crystals with enough heat to convert it to gas, the particles are blown apart and participate in the chaos of the supercritical gaseous state as dispersed individual crystals.

I know it's just an idea and not an answer, however, there are truly no answers in life, only deeper questions, and there are even no true questions either - asking merely reveals the edge of what we see and believe to be true about 'what is' and 'how things work' without necessarily knowing for certain if any of that is accurate. That's why trying something new is always a good option to consider. Good luck - I know you'll figure out a way to make your system work.

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.511.8758&rep=rep1&type=pdf. This link may help you my friend.

Try to find someone that can help you with some Zeta potential analysis of your material. This is the best way to find out the right "best" conditions to stabilize the system.