An open-to-air type electrolyte cathode discharge (ELCAD) has been developed with a new design. The present configuration leads to a stable plasma even at low flow rates (0.96 mL/min). Plasma fluctuations arising from the variations in the gap between solid anode and liquid cathode were eliminated by providing a V-groove to the liquid glass-capillary. Cathode (ground) connection is given to the solution at the V-groove itself. Interfaced to atomic emission spectrometry (AES), its analytical performance is evaluated. The optimized molarity of the solution is 0.2 M. The analytical response curves for Ca, Cu, Cd, Pb, Hg, Fe, and Zn demonstrated good linearity. The limit of detections of Ca, Cu, Cd, Pb, Hg, Fe, and Zn are determined to be 17, 11, 5, 45, 15, 28, and 3 ng mL(-1). At an integration time of 0.3 s, the relative standard deviation (RSD) values of the acid blank solutions are found to be less than 10% for the elements Ca, Cu, Cd, Hg, Fe, and Zn and 18% for Pb. The method is applied for the determination of the elemental constituents in different matrix materials such as tuna fish (IAEA-350), oyster tissue (NIST SRM 1566a), and coal fly ash (CFA SRM 1633b). The obtained results are in good agreement with the certified values. The accuracy is found to be between 7% and 0.6% for major to trace levels of constituent elements and the precision between 11% and 0.6%. For the injection of 100 microL of 200 ng mL(-1) mercury solution at the flow rate of 0.8 mL/min, the flow injection studies resulted in the relative standard deviation (RSD) of 8%, concentration detection limit of 10 ng/mL, and mass detection limit of 1 ng for mercury.

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The research was conducted to study the size control of TiO2 nanoparticles synthesised. The TiO2 nanoparticles was formed using the solution plasma process. This method is an electrolysis of water-based experiment. When compared to other methods, the solution plasma method offers both a shorter synthesis time as well as a simple setup. Researches conducted on nanomaterials have proven that these materials tend to have varying properties when compared to bulk metals. With this, being able to vary the sizes of the TiO2 nanoparticles meant being able to study its possible future applications. One being using these nanoparticles for the fabrication of solar cells. Varying the sizes of these nanoparticles could bring a difference in the reactivity which can help enhance the performance of the solar cells. In order to vary the sizes of the nanoparticles, the concentration of the electrolyte was varied. During the research, it was found that the sizes of the TiO2 nanoparticles decreases with the increase in the concentration of the electrolyte.

This research was conducted to investigate the various control techniques to vary the size of aluminum nanoparticles through solution plasma process, specifically the submerged glow-discharge plasma process. Aluminum nanoparticles have received many attention due to their unique combustion, resistance and superhydrophobic properties. A lab-scale based submerged glow-discharge setup has been constructed to produce the nanoparticles. Different concentration of potassium carbonate electrolyte (0.1M – 0.5M) and cathode submerged length (50 mm – 100mm) were used in this study. The results were viewed and analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. As the major results showed that the diameter size distribution ranges from 80nm to 2µm. Higher concentrations have shown to produce smaller nanoparticles due to the overlapping of electron beams on the cathode surface. Also, shorter cathode submerged lengths have resulted in larger-sized nanoparticles.

This research aims to study the effects of the manipulation of the concentration of electrolyte on the synthesis and size control of carbon nanoparticles. Submerged glow-discharge plasma (SGDP) method was used which is a type of electrolysis. This method was proven to be both cost effective and eco-friendly in the synthesis of nanoparticles. Carbon nanoparticles generally range from 1 to 100nm and its small size gives it a high surface area to low volume ratio which gives it an edge over the sheet and bulk metals. They vary in their mechanical properties with respect to their sizes which makes it ideal for the manufacturing industry. The ability to control carbon nanoparticle size will give manufacturers the ability to obtain the desired mechanical properties. This research brings the potential of being able to control the size of carbon nanoparticles with a simple and cost-effective method by changing the concentration of electrolyte and plasma discharge voltage. The manufacturing industry in the future can benefit from this research as they will be able to manufacture materials with better mechanical properties at a cheaper cost.