Abstract
Copper, silver and nickel nanosized powders were prepared using metal wires with different diameters in nitrogen gas by pulsed wire discharge. The diameter of the wire was changed from 0.05 to 0.3 mm. The pressure of nitrogen and charged energy were fixed at 100 kPa and 540 J, respectively. After the discharge of the wires, the volume of plasma/vapor measured by high-speed photographs was almost constant even though the wire diameter was changed. On the other hand, the median diameter of copper, silver and nickel nanosized powders was decreased with decreasing the diameter of the wire. Therefore, the decrease in the median diameter accompanies the decrease in the density of the plasma/vapor.
