Synthesis of nanoparticles: control of size and agglomeration

许多不同类型的纳米颗粒在诸如先进材料、医学、生物技术和微电子学等不同领域中找到了应用。热等离子体技术的使用，特别是感应等离子体炬的使用是合成各种纳米尺寸的金属、碳化物和陶瓷颗粒的强大技术。然而，由于缺乏对用于合成的反应器的设计和行为的基本理解，只有一部分合成材料具有所需的粒度分布。分离出所需的部分通常与合成它们一样昂贵。此外，产品的硬或软结块通常使其难以或不可能使用。本项目将进行纳米粒子合成的基础研究，在一个商业型的感应等离子体反应器使用模型系统，研究控制的粒度分布和团聚。所获得的结果将是感兴趣的所有研究人员使用这项技术。我们的工业合作伙伴是感应等离子体设备的主要世界生产商，并且很好地将这项研究成果应用于其他系统。

Nanoparticles of many different types are finding applications in such diverse areas as advanced materials, medicine, biotechnology and microelectronics. The use of thermal plasma technology, especially the use of induction plasma torches is a powerful technique to synthesize a wide array of nanosized metals, carbides and ceramic particles. However, due to a lack of fundamental understanding on the design and behaviour of the reactors used for the synthesis only a fraction of the synthesized material has the desired particle size distribution. It is often as expensive to separate out this desired fraction as it was to synthesize them. In addition the hard or soft agglomeration of the product often makes it difficult or impossible to use. This project will undertake a fundamental study of nanoparticle synthesis in a commercial type of induction plasma reactor using a model system to study both the control of particle size distribution and agglomeration. The results obtained will be of interest to all researchers using this technology. Our industrial partner is the major world producer of induction plasma equipment and is well situated to apply the results of this research to other systems.