[youngWoody]

Hi,

Does someone of you have an idea on how to easily remove remaining water from a colloidal DMF dispersion? I thought about distillation at reduced pressure, but that probably does not remove all of the water. Also, molecular sieves would interact with the particles and cause flocculation of the particles. Does anybody have an idea?

Thanks!

[kriggy]

what about using metalic sodium to react with water? Or DMP? Or good old MgSO4 / Na2SO4?

[youngWoody]

what about using metalic sodium to react with water? Or DMP? Or good old MgSO4 / Na2SO4?

Thanks kriggy for your response! I will give those components a try!

[youngWoody]

Just gave the MgSO₄ a try and it looks good. It did not effect the stability of my particles in the DMF.

Should filtering through a regular paper filter be enough to remove any residues of the MgSO₄, or is there another step for further purification?

Thanks again!

[orthoformate]

What are your colloids composed of?

How do you know that removed the water?

Small amounts of salts may remain in the DMF. It would be wise to look up solubility of MgSO4 in DMF.

Can you not tolerate any remaining MgSO₄ in your DMF?

[youngWoody]

What are your colloids composed of?

How do you know that removed the water?

Small amounts of salts may remain in the DMF. It would be wise to look up solubility of MgSO4 in DMF.

Can you not tolerate any remaining MgSO₄ in your DMF?

It's very small silica particles <20nm. I didn't perform a titration or TGA nor anything else to check the remaining amount of water. I was just happy that the MgSO₄ didn't interact with colloids that would cause flocculation.

Not sure how remaining MgSO₄ would hamper my subsequent surface modification steps that I'm planning on performing on the silica particles.

[Luzio]

what about using metalic sodium to react with water? Or DMP? Or good old MgSO4 / Na2SO4?

How much metallic sodium would you recommend putting in the water?