Fabrication and Particle Size Control of Oxide Nanoparticles by Gas Phase Reaction Assisted with DC Plasma

Abstract

Although several gas phase synthesis methods for nanoparticles have been developed, only few are adapted for mass-production of varoius types of nanoparticles. In this study, we developed a new method to synthesize oxide nanoparticles by gas phase reaction assisted with DC plasma. We chose ZrO₂ and CeO₂ as a model powder. TEM observation and specific surface area measurement showed that as-synthesized nanoparticles were in the size range of 5-100nm and they were not hollow but solid particles. From XRD results, as-synthesized nanoparticles had a high crystallinity without sintering. The present experiments suggested that the particle size is controlled by the oxygen gas feed rate of a carrier gas through a two fluid nozzle, i. e., an increase in oxygen feed rate leads to smaller nanopraticles at a constant precursor feed rate.