Welcome to this brief introduction to nanoparticle synthesis by inert-gas condensation. The following lists provide examples of materials synthesis methods, and methods applied to the preparation of nanoparticles. At the bottom are a few examples of recent research results.
Solid-state materials are useful in different forms for different applications. The most common forms are single crystals, polycrystalline powders, films, and glasses. The following list shows a variety of synthetic methods to prepare different forms of solid materials.
New synthesis and characterization tools to prepare and study materials at the nanoscale
New or enhanced properties:
mechanical, electronic, magnetic, optical
phosphor efficiency, solubility, spatial resolution
New materials lead to new applications which further drives the discovery and development of better materials
We use a laser-heated method to vaporize material to form gas-phase clusters. By adjusting the atmosphere in the chamber in which we do this, we can control the size of the particles that ultimately form. Figure 1 shows a schematic of the vaporization chamber.
| Figure 1. Schematic of the nanoparticle preparation chamber. |
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The cover of Materials Letters in 1995 shows a micrograph of some of our ZrO2 nanoparticles of approximately 1-2 nm diameter (the bar is 20 nm).
see Publication page.