This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will develop new scale up methods for the synthesis of surface stabilized metal nanoparticles from aerosol. The advantage of chemical aerosol-flow synthesis is in its simplicity in procedure and experimental setup, low cost and scalability. The method allows for the synthesis of high quality nanoparticles in continuous flow regimen. Phase I results proved feasibility of the method for the synthesis of high quality silver nanoparticles with high yield. This Phase II project will focus on increasing manufacturing capabilities to decrease the cost of nanoparticles significantly.
Low cost, printed electrical conductors are expected to be a rapidly growing market for flexible electronics and solar cells. Reducing processing temperatures and material costs are key enablers to these growing applications. The low cost production of nanometals will contribute to these trends.
Intellectual Merit Current technologies for production of nanoparticles/quantum dots are batch methods or industrial large scale gas-phase methods. Batch methods produce nanoparticles in small quantities and the size of particles varies from batch to batch. Industrial large scale methods manufacture nanoparticles with short shelf lifetime and with poor size distribution. UT Dots technology is based on reactions of nanoparticles synthesis inside small droplets of aerosol. A solution of precursors in solvent is dispersed as micron-sized droplets in the gas-phase and then carried by a carrier gas through the furnace, which is heated to the desired temperature. The reaction of nanoparticle synthesis is taking place inside the small droplets of aerosol. Since the reaction proceeds in a very small volume, the temperature distribution inside the droplet is uniform. This creates narrow size-distributed nanoparticles. The scientific uniqueness of this project is that for the first time, high quality nanoparticles were synthesized in small droplets of aerosol. The idea of using aerosol droplets for the synthesis of colloidal nanoparticles is new and has never been used before. The droplets act as micro reactors, so the reaction site is confined within the micron- sized droplets. The size distribution of obtained nanoparticles is very good and comparable with the size distribution of nanoparticles obtained in batch methods on small scale. This Phase II project provided a better understanding of the process of aerosol synthesis of surface stabilized nanoparticles of controllable sizes within the region of 2 to 10 nm. Project’s impact The availability of inexpensive nanoparticles is very important for the general public, as it will bring knowledge of nanosize effects and nanoparticle properties to schools and to the general public. It will also stimulate the production of manufactured goods containing US made nanomaterials, thus creating jobs and additional taxable revenue in the nanomaterials industry. The availability of inexpensive high quality nanoparticles will stimulate the production of manufactured goods in the industry of nanomaterials and stimulate development of new applications. This project focused on creating a prototype of a large scale production of nanoparticles in small droplets of aerosol. During this Phase II project the pilot setup for the production of nanoparticles in aerosol was created. This setup allows for the production of high quality silver nanoparticles and other nanomaterials or quantum dots. Figure 1 shows a pilot setup with inserted glass reactor. A 6ft man is shown for comparison. This project developed low-cost, large scale production of silver and other nanoparticles for various industries. Silver nanoparticles developed during this project will find application as conductive nanoinks for printable electronics.
