Gas-phase synthesis of nanoparticles: present status and perspectives
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Research Letter
Gas-phase synthesis of nanoparticles: present status and perspectives Y. Huttel, and L. Martínez, Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), c/Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz 3 28049 Madrid, Spain A. Mayoral, School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Pudong, Shanghai 201210, China I. Fernández, Nano4Energy SLNE, Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales (ETSII-UPM), Instituto de Fusión Nuclear, c/José Gutiérrez Abascal 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain Address all correspondence to Y. Huttel at [email protected] (Received 8 June 2018; accepted 6 August 2018)
Abstract There is an increasing interest in the generation of well-defined nanoparticles (NPs) not only because of their size-related particular properties, but also because they are promising building blocks for more complex materials in nanotechnology. Here, we will shortly introduce the gas-phase synthesis technology that has evolved rapidly in the last years and allows the fabrication of complex NPs with controllable and tuneable chemical composition and structure while keeping very good control over the size distribution. We will also address some limitations of the technology (stability over time, production yield, etc.) and discuss possible solutions.
Introduction The production of nanoclusters by gas-phase synthesis has been developed and widely used since the 1980s and 1990s by groups interested in studying their properties and their interaction with surfaces.[1] With the advent of the nanotechnology, the gas-phase synthesis technology has evolved to the fabrication of well-controlled nanoparticles (NPs). All variants of the technology are based on the atomization of a material, followed by the controlled coalescence of the atoms into NPs that are collected.[2] The different variants differ mainly in the way in which the material is atomized and they have rapidly evolved in the last decade giving rise to new experimental apparatus that can produce a wide variety of NPs.[3] The most popular NP source is probably the one based on magnetron sputtering because it is relatively easy to use and it produces the largest proportion of charged NPs[4] which allows their mass selection and deflection. This probably explains why this type of NP source became commercially available in 2001. In this paper, we will address three different issues that improve the versatility, stability, and production rates of sputter gas aggregation sources (SGAS). First, we will show how the single magnetron-based NP source has been adapted to the multiple ion cluster source (MICS) to produce a wider variety of NPs. In a second step, we will face the question of SGAS stability; although magnetron-based cluster sources are stable (in terms of NP size and deposition rates) over short periods of time (tens of minutes), instabilities for longer production times must be addressed for the further scaling-up and mass production. In that sense, the limitations induced by the wellknown race track fo
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