Plasma Processing of Nanomaterials

4

Microscale Plasmas for Metal and Metal Oxide Nanoparticle Synthesis

Davide Mariotti

R. Mohan Sankaran

CONTENTS

4.1    Introduction

4.2    Physics of Microscale Plasmas

4.3    Schemes for Nanoparticle Synthesis

4.3.1    Gas-Phase Nucleation from Vapor Precursors

4.3.2    Evaporation/Sputtering of Solid Metal Wire Electrodes

4.4    Potential for Scale-Up

4.5    Conclusions

References

4.1    Introduction

Microscale plasmas are a special class of electrical discharges formed in geometries where at least one dimension is reduced to submillimeter length scales. ¹ As a result of their unique pD (where p is pressure and D is the smallest physical dimension) scaling, microplasmas are characterized by high-pressure stability,² non-equilibrium thermodynamics, ...