Mechanoluminscence during Wet Grinding of Fine Particles

In stirred media mills mechanoluminescence is induced by the stressing of particles between mill beads. The light impulses accompanying the stress events are analyzed. The primary particles and aggregates exhibit a different behavior during impact loads. Mechanical stress applied to solid particles leads to the fracture of particles. Application of stress to aggregates mostly leads to the cracking of the solid bridge bonds between the primary particles. The breakage of aggregates was on‐line monitored from the time dependence of the stress frequency.