Solid material comminution or disintegration – Processes – With application of fluid or lubricant material
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-06
2001-05-01
Rosenbaum, Mark (Department: 3725)
Solid material comminution or disintegration
Processes
With application of fluid or lubricant material
C241S021000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06224003
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a process for reducing the mean particle size of resilient porous organic polymer particles having open cell pores which resist particle size reduction due to the compressibility and resiliency of the organic polymer. Further, the present invention relates to novel products produced by the process for reducing the mean particle size and to particles of reduced mean particle size which have a functional release additive contained in the pores thereof.
The present invention further relates to an improved lead acid battery element containing metal impurity inhibiting porous polymeric additives which are added to the positive active material, negative active material and/or battery separator to inhibit the detrimental effects of certain metals on the efficiency of a lead acid battery, particularly the negative plate battery element and to polymeric macroporous additives that enhance active material utilization efficiency and improvement in the utilization of sulfuric acid electrolyte necessary for the discharge reaction of a lead acid battery which are produced by the process of this invention.
Resilient porous organic polymers resist permanent deformation and have been found to be difficult to process, if at all, for size reduction in conventional grinding processes. Conventional grinding processes are typically used to grind and produce particle size reduction for solid type particles which have little or no compressibility and which can vary in particle hardness. Typical grinding processes such as universal mills, slurry mills, fluid energy mills, cone mills and hammer mills are generally effective for such solid type particles, particularly brittle type particles. One of the problems with the use of conventional grinding mills for size reduction of resilient porous organic polymers is that the particles compress under the applied forces, i.e., the particles are compressible and regain substantially the same geometry when the force is removed. Unlike solid particles particularly, brittle particles, the conventual grinding mill approaches used for dry solid particles produces substantially less or even no size reduction of resilient porous polymers in the dry powder form. Further, attrition type grinding mills have had little overall effectiveness when the organic polymers were incorporated into a liquid slurry.
In many applications that use porous organic polymers as additives such as the use of additives in lead acid batteries, it is preferred to have a non-spherical geometry such as an elongated geometry and/or a geometry that has a length to diameter which is greater than one, in order to provide improved overall performance of the additive. It is therefore desirable to produce porous organic particles of reduced size by processes which produce a non-spherical geometry.
Thus, for the many applications in which porous organic polymers are used, particularly there use as additives, wherein a reduced particle size and/or particle size distribution offers performance advantages, there is a need for a process which is effective for reducing the particle size of resilient porous organic particles at reasonable process conditions and processing times, particularly processing conditions at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperatures at preferably commercial scale processing times.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A new process for reducing the mean particle size of resilient porous organic polymer particles having open cell pores has been discovered. In brief, the process includes the steps of forming an aqueous particle slurry comprising a major amount of water, both internal and external to the particles and a minor amount of particles to form a slurry and subjecting the aqueous slurry to a cutting action by contact with a plurality of cutting surfaces to reduce the mean particle size of the particles and recovering particles of reduced mean particle size.
New porous organic polymers of reduced particle size produced by the cutting process have also been discovered. In brief, the new products produced by the process have a non-spherical geometry, typically elongated and/or a length to diameter to width aspect ratio greater than one. The products find use as additives in lead acid battery elements and in polymer coatings, films and composites when used as a functional additive release agent or additive.
A new battery element which inhibits the detrimental effect of soluble metal impurity on the negative plate has been discovered. In brief, the battery elements include the addition of a porous organic polymer produced by the process of this invention having functional groups with a preferential affinity for the metal impurity in the cation or anion state, to the positive active material, the negative active material or the separator which separates the positive and negative plates within a lead acid battery and which typically is a reservoir for sulfuric acid electrolyte.
A new battery element which improves utilization efficiency of the active material in a lead acid battery has been discovered. In brief, the battery elements include the addition of macroporous containing organic particle additives produced by the process of this invention to the active material in the positive or negative plates of a lead acid battery to improve overall utilization efficiency and the utilization of sulfuric acid electrolyte during discharge of the battery.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5154361 (1992-10-01), Willoughby
Ensci Inc
Rosenbaum Mark
Uxa Frank J.
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