I-Corps: Novel Flame Base Precursors for Controlled Catalyst Structure

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For many advanced and diverse applications, ranging from chemical sensing, catalysis, and magnetic recording, current research is increasingly focused on exploiting the high surface-to-volume ratios of nanoparticles as a framework for the assembly of complex nanomaterials. Structures including core/shell nanoparticles and multicomponent hierarchical assemblies can exhibit enhanced properties and new functionality arising from the close proximity of chemically-distinct, nanostructured components.Developing scalable fabrication processes that provide the necessary control of nanoparticle structure for enhanced activity presents significant techno-economic challenges for bringing nanoparticles to large- scale industrial catalytic applications. The proposed technology with controlled precursor injection and tightly controlled reaction zones for nanoparticle core-shell formation provides a unique continuous process approach for scaling up core-shell nanocatalyst fabrication and hierarchical assemblies at costs that are relevant for large-scale industrial applications.The proposed Reactive Spray Deposition Technology (RSDT) technology is a thin-film deposition process that overcomes many of the shortcomings of traditional vapor deposition techniques while also replacing conventional multiple step wet processing manufacturing yielding equal or better quality coatings at a lower cost. The RSDT not only provides high quality active films/coatings (e.g.catalysts/electrodes), it also reduces the manpower, catalyst loading amount, energy consumption and number of processing steps required to assemble the films. More specifically, RSDT combines materials synthesis and deposition into a single step with several control features, replacing at least 5 unit operations in a conventional electrode manufacturing scheme.