Particulate products generate one trillion dollars annually to the US economy.  New Jersey deals with a significant portion of this amount, because it is home to many diverse industries that deal with powders and powder processing.  These include large and small companies in pharmaceuticals, food, cosmetics, ceramics, defense, electronics and specialty chemicals, dealing with powder-based materials such as, drugs, biomaterials, piezoelectric-ceramics, magnetic materials, optical materials, energetic materials, etc.

In order to increase the profitability of New Jersey and US companies dealing with powders, there is an urgent need for developing processes to engineer the particles so that they have improved characteristics such as dispersability, flowability, wettability, sinterability, size uniformity, proper morphology, reduced tendency for segregation, as well as having tailored electrical, electro-magnetic, optical, thermal or other properties.