Abstract

Hydrodynamic cavitation provides a media-free route for particle dispersion, deagglomeration, controlled comminution, and exfoliation by combining extensional flow, viscous and turbulent stresses, bubble-induced particle motion, liquid microjets, shock waves, and high-velocity interparticle interactions. This article develops an engineering framework that links particulate structure, colloidal stability, cavitation dynamics, local stress scales, cumulative exposure, and process equipment to measurable product attributes. The analysis distinguishes reversible deagglomeration from aggregate or primary-particle fracture and emphasizes control of the coarse tail of the particle-size distribution, rheology, morphology, crystal structure, chemical purity, and aged stability. Quantitative case studies covering metal oxides, silver, nanofluids, pharmaceuticals, soy slurries, silicon, graphite, carbon nanotubes, resins, and plant raw materials demonstrate strong first-pass effects, formulation-dependent endpoints, and the risk of overprocessing. Practical scale-up is based on preserving critical pressure history and passage geometry, controlling residence-time and pass distributions, managing heat and erosion, and increasing throughput by parallelization or staged processing. The appropriate endpoint is therefore the minimum cavitation severity and cumulative exposure that achieve a stable particle-size distribution while preserving the properties required by the final application.