Magnetically assisted impaction mixing (MAIM) is a novel dry mixing technique, which can be used to mix nanoparticles. Mixing of nanoparticles is usually conducted in solvent-based mixing techniques. The solvents used in these techniques are usually organic, which can be expensive and harmful to the environment. MAIM creates homogeneous nanoparticle mixtures while eliminating conditioning and drying steps associated with wet mixing techniques. To create the best mixing quality of nanoparticles, MAIM was optimized by studying the effects of magnet-to-sample ratio, time, magnet size, and constituents of the mixture. The results were then compared with other well-known mixing techniques.
To characterize the nanoparticle mixtures on a micron scale, a field emission scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy were used at 5000 times magnification. The results obtained from images and compound percent point analysis shows that the new MAIM technique produces a mixture quality of nanoparticles similar to supercritical sonication mixing
